NEW YORK – Slobbering and wheezing in anticipation, Brooklyn, a pit bull mix, strained against her collar as she marched purposefully towards a fenced play area at Animal Care Centres of New York City’s Manhattan shelter, where she knew she would be showered with butt scratches and attention.

The gate opened, and volunteers laughed as Brooklyn bounded around like a playful wrecking ball.

“She is the cutest, roly-poly, delicious dog,” said Ms Katy Hansen, director of marketing and communications for Animal Care Centres, which runs the city’s public animal shelters. She said it was hard to believe Brooklyn had been living at the shelter for six months.

The city’s shelter animal population has exploded, with many animals waiting weeks or months without being adopted. Because of overcrowding, dogs at the Manhattan shelter are being kept in makeshift kennels in offices, and stacks of cat cages line the halls.

The cat population has grown to the point that in July, Animal Care Centres said it was “closed for cat intake”. But the organisation’s contract with the city requires it to take in animals in need, and Ms Hansen said hundreds of cats had been accepted since the announcement.

Overcrowding at shelters is not new, nor is it unique to New York City. But it is particularly acute in New York, where, animal rescuers said, a growing cat population, a national veterinarian shortage, political indifference and economic uncertainty have exacerbated the problem, making it difficult for local shelters and rescue groups to manage.

Compounding the problem, only three boroughs – Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island – have full-service, city-run shelters. Two new shelters are being built. One, in Queens, is expected to open in 2024, the other, in the Bronx, in 2025.

The three existing city shelters took in roughly 4,500 cats and 2,429 dogs in the first six months of 2023, compared with 3,900 cats and 1,976 dogs during the same period in 2022. (The shelters take in other animals as well.)

The number of adoptions has risen at a much lower rate, Ms Hansen said.

A perfect storm

Ms Eva Prokop, founder of Whiskers-A-Go-Go, a cat rescue group based in Brooklyn, said of the factors that created the shelter crisis: “I think it’s a perfect storm in a way.”

She said she and other rescuers trained in TNR – or “trap, neuter and return” – have tried for years to limit the growth of the city’s cat colonies by capturing feral cats and bringing them to veterinarians to be spayed or neutered before returning them to the streets.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations across the United States, including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in New York, temporarily halted spay and neuter services to protect staff and to preserve personal protective equipment, according to Ms Christa Chadwick, the group’s vice-president of shelter services.

“I think it’s fair to say we’re seeing the impact of that pause in spay and neuter services in lots of places,” said Ms Chadwick.

The organisation has resumed the services, but the national veterinarian shortage has made it difficult to keep up with the demand for procedures. With regard to its own veterinarian ranks, Ms Chadwick said, the ASPCA has “a number of open positions that have been open for some time”.

On top of that, people are abandoning and surrendering pets in large numbers, rescuers said, part of a national trend. Former owners cite several reasons for giving up their dogs and cats, including job uncertainty, the high cost of veterinary care, and moves to apartments that do not allow pets.

“The reasons we are experiencing surrender are classics and are as true now as 10 years ago,” said Mr Joel Lopez, vice-president of the ASPCA Adoption Centre in New York.

When the number of homeless animals rises, shelters rely on rescue groups to move the animals into foster homes, Ms Hansen said. But rescuers said they have been taking fewer animals because they are overwhelmed by the increase in surrenders and drop in adoptions as fewer people offer to foster.

“There’s a domino effect,” said Mr Doug Halsey, president of the rescue group Ready for Rescue.

Trying to keep up, rescuers said, is difficult – physically, financially and emotionally.

“It’s hard to live your life,” Mr Halsey said. “It’s constant nurturing, care-taking, troubleshooting, problem solving, fund-raising.”

Political indifference

Rescuers said they were also frustrated by a political culture that does not hold lawmakers accountable on issues such as animal control and welfare.

Ms Prokop said: “When you go to actually vote for the next mayor or for whoever, you don’t even know what their stance is on the shelter, because ultimately, we vote for other things. It’s considered not a serious issue, but it’s an issue about compassion and humanity.”

More animals would be adopted, Mr Halsey said, if the city created incentives for landlords to allow pets. He also called for the city government to increase the shelter system’s budget.

Mr Jim Gennaro, a city council member who represents parts of Queens, has long been outspoken about animal welfare issues.

Mr Gennaro, a Democrat, said in a statement that public officials should “encourage New Yorkers to adopt over shopping from breeders and pet stores – even if that means coming up with a legislative solution”.

Ms Alexandra Silver, director of the Mayor’s Office of Animal Welfare, said members of her staff were active in trying to spread awareness about Animal Care Centre’s resources to prevent pet surrenders and about its foster orientation events.

More are being euthanised

As the number of dogs and cats at city shelters has increased, Ms Hansen said, so has the number of animals being euthanised.

Through June, about 600 animals at the three shelters were euthanised, Ms Hansen said, up from 450 in the same period in 2022. The euthanasia rate remains historically low, she said.

Animal Care Centres posts “emergency placement animal” lists three times a week, and lists are viewable for 42 hours. If animals are not placed with a rescue group, adopted, reclaimed by a previous owner, or taken off the list for some other reason, they are euthanised.

Animals on a recent list included: a “friendly, playful and shy” dog who loved to cuddle but who began digging and banging at her kennel door incessantly; a “highly social and playful dog” who was frantically trying to exit his kennel and risked injuring himself; a dog described as a “wrinkly-faced dreamboat” who recently bit someone when he got overexcited; and a cat who enjoyed cheek and chin scratches but was overstimulated and stressed at the shelter.

Mr Lopez of the ASPCA said the solution was to “adopt, adopt, adopt”.

Those who are unsure if they are ready to commit to a pet, Ms Prokop said, could help by volunteering to foster.

“Maybe by fostering, you realise that your life is considerably different,” she said. NYTIMES