Oh, to have a cuddly companion by your side as you open your laptop from your makeshift home office. 🥺
While it’s a comforting thought, it’s also one that has now caused a huge increase in the number of pets that are up for adoption in the Netherlands.
“Pet owners have to go back to the office. The dogs and cats that have been purchased are lonely at home,” Femke Pasquino-de Harde, founder of Verhuisdieren.nl, tells RTL Nieuws.
As the owner of a website that helps relocate pets to new homes, Femke Pasquino-de Harde has seen a drastic increase in the number of pets that are up for adoption post-pandemic.
Supply and demand have reversed
Before the first lockdown in the Netherlands, there were an average of 1400 animals on her website, and people flocked to adopt them as coronavirus restrictions set in.
Now, 2200 pets are looking for new homes, and remarkably few people are interested in giving them one.
“Half of these animals are less than two years old and therefore purchased during corona time,” says Pasquino-de Harde.
Unsocialised, unwanted
It is especially clear that the dogs put up for adoption are so-called corona puppies. Many of them have behavioural problems because they’ve lived their lives in isolation without ever being properly socialised.
Ultimately, people bought them because they were lonely during a lockdown, but as life returns to more or less normal, it’s increasingly clear that the now-grown puppies are lonely.
Dogs are not the only animals that have suffered from peoples’ selfishness. Cats and rabbits also had high adoption rates during the pandemic and are now returned to shelters and adoption centres.
Would you give a “corona puppy” a new home? Tell us in the comments below!