FREMONT - Sandusky County Dog Warden Kelly Pocock said her department is being inundated by stray dogs and multiple calls a day from people wanting to surrender their pets in the post COVID-19 world.

“We literally had every kennel full last week,” she said recently.

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, dogs were scarce and Pocock did not even have a pet to share for The News-Messenger/News Herald column "Pet of the Week," where photos and descriptions of animals needing adoption are shared on the print and web.

“I’m not really sure what happened,” she said about the change this summer.

“We are averaging five calls a day,” she said about people wanting to surrender pets to the kennel.

The dog warden said two weeks ago all 19 of their kennels were full and she was worried that if they snagged any more stray dogs they would have to pull in temporary kennels to house them. But last week, the kennel was down to 11 dogs.

The county dog warden is legally required to handle stray dogs, and therefore the dog warden does not accept owner-surrenders.

“Normally owner-surrenders go to the humane society, but I think they are in the same boat,” Pocock said.

Scarlett Sterling, the shelter manager for the Humane Society of Sandusky County, said they too are facing more challenges than they did before COVID-19. Their shelter at 1315 N. River Road is full with cats and dogs.

Sterling said the Humane Society was already seeing animal stays increasing year by year.

Currently, between foster homes for pets and their kennel, the humane society has 160 cats, 11 dogs and five guinea pigs. She concurred people were adopting more animals during COVID-19, but that is no longer the case.

They too have received weekly calls not only about animal surrenders, but about people who had a family member die and now there was no place for their pet to go.

“We have a dog, Doobie, who had been found with their deceased owner,” she added, noting the situation is traumatic for the pet too.

Plus for the humane society, when they recover an animal it is not a quick flip in and out. They allow the animals to decompress from the trauma of changing homes.

“We do a lot of medical to help injured animals,” she added. “We work with three different veterinarians.”

People call to report having kittens and cats they need to surrender and right now there is no room, Sterling said.

“People are brutal and harsh,” she added, saying people blame the humane society for the issue. She said there are factors stemming from COVID-19, which led to a cat population explosion and other surrender situations for dogs.

Both Pocock and Sterling said pet owners are finding that COVID-19 affected getting their pets into area veterinarians. Appointments are taking months to schedule ahead. Also during COVID-19, pet care had to be delayed. Just like doctors who treat people, veterinarians shut down and also had to delay elective surgeries for months.

But it is clear that for whatever reasons, there has been a change this summer concerning the pet status in many homes.

Dog Warden Kelly Pocock said, “I don’t know what the trigger was.”

The influx of dogs seemed to hit within the past six to eight weeks.

While the breed the dog warden deals with most often in the kennel is a pitbull or a pitbull mix, the dog kennel at present has a large variety of dogs picked up as strays —– including Labrador retrievers, German shepherds, fox hounds and others. She also is concerned that if owners cannot surrender an animal they just may let them loose to become a stray. She said there is a fine for people like that if they are found.

Pocock said pet owners could be facing numerous issues such as going back to work, not being home and even inflation.

“We’ve heard everything,” she said about her staff of three full-time and one part-time worker. She said other reasons for wanting to surrender a pet have been people moving or the dog must go because of the kids.

“I can’t afford it,” she said was another they've heard.

“Dog food went up $15 a bag,” she pointed out. “All pet fees have gone up.”

The warden’s office has a specific schedule for strays brought in. They are held for three business days, receive medical treatment and heartworm medication. After four or five days, dogs can be available for adoption.

Some dogs are adopted quickly, but others remain for months. She has one black lab which the staff named Mabel. She is 11-years-old and clearly a dog that had been living in a home, but no owner ever came to claim her.

“The adoption fee is $150, which covers the cost of what we have into the dog,” Pocock said. The fee covers spay/neuter, rabies shot, four-in-one shot, dewormer, heartworm medicine, flea and tick treatment plus a year’s dog license in Sandusky County.

The dog warden still offers the Alpha project for veterans and first responders who can adopt a dog and the fee is covered by an outside donation.

The kennel also offers a test drive option, which allows the adopting family to pay the adoption fee but return the dog if the animal’s personality is not a good match for the new owners. The dog warden’s office also allows the family to adopt a dog and allows time for the dog to get to know their owners and form a new home before spay/neutering is required. If the new owner does not follow through with the spay/neuter, there is a $500 fine which they agree to before they adopt the dog.

Pocock said they are working to make their animals more adoptable and have a volunteer trainer come in a couple times a week to socialize the dogs. Dave Gyurica of The Retriever Barn works with dogs to heal, sit, and walk on a leash. “Those things are going to be a benefit to the new owner,” Pocock said.

As for the impact of COVID-19, Pocock said their office was hit hard during the pandemic. The cases of people allowing cats to overpopulate was huge. As humane society officer, Pocock said she had a number of cases where people were found to have more than 20 cats.

“Some of this will work out with a little more time,” she said optimistically.

To adopt an animal from the Humane Society of Sandusky County and fees visit humanesanduskyco.org.

For more information on adoptions from the Sandusky County Dog Warden's Office visit sanduskycountydogkennel.com.