Some animal shelters are seeing quite a few pets that were adopted during the pandemic returned, but the Humane Society & SPCA of Hancock County says they are not.

Operations Manager Natalie Reffitt credits their adoption process over the pandemic.

The shelter was closed during the pandemic and people had to fill out an application beforehand which gave the shelter a better idea of what the person was after.

She said that process led to better matchmaking than having people come in and look around and choose a pet just because they looked cute.

Natalie is still highly encouraging people to fill out an application ahead of time so they can make a better match, but people can now come in and look around as the shelter has reopened.

She said they did see an increase in adoptions over the pandemic but it wasn’t a huge increase.

She said pets offered people a lot of comfort and purpose during the pandemic.

Natalie said that veterinary clinics have seen a big increase over the pandemic with people bringing in newly adopted pets for checkups or other concerns.

She said during the pandemic and stay home order people had a chance to be around their pets 24/7 which led to people seeing more possible ailments in the pets and having them checked out.

People are asked to be patient as veterinarians work to catch up with the increase in patients.

Click here to see the pets up for adoption at the Humane Society & SPCA of Hancock County.

In the picture above are Star and Hudson.