VANDERBURGH COUNTY, Ind. (WEHT) — The Vanderburgh Humane Society is seeing a growing trend an increase in surrenders.
Laurie Miller says it’s due to the changing economy.
“We have made a correlation between the increased need for our pet food bank people are, you know, having a harder time feeding their families let alone their pets and you know for a lot of people they have to make a difficult decision to surrender a pet so they can, you know, feed their kids.”
Miller says it’s not just food prices but access to veterinary care is hard to find.
“Prices have gone up exponentially so you know we do have a low-cost clinic for vaccines and spay neuter but you know there’s a growing need for that and we just have one vent which there’s a national vet shortage also so it’s just becoming increasingly more difficult to be a pet owner.”
The humane society of Henderson County is also seeing the increase, but cannot take in surrenders.
Officials say the shelter is seeing more stray dogs through animal control.