Local pet food pantries strain as shelters face people returning animals

TELLER COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - The Teller County Regional Animal Shelter (TCRAS) said more pet owners are giving up their animals.

"There definitely seems to be a timing piece to it. A lot of people did adopt during COVID-19 when their lives looked a little different than they do now," TCRAS marketing coordinator Kathleen Ruyak said. "I suspect a lot of people don't necessarily want to [give up their pet]. It is a challenging decision when you have to make that call to a shelter to rehome basically a family member."

Ruyak said two of the primary reasons she hears from pet owners who are pushed to the brink are housing insecurities and behavioral issues.

There is also a concern over pet care prices. In a 15-month span from 2022 to 2023, the price of pet food jumped over 20%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). The prices leveled out over the last two years, but the American Pet Product Association (APPA) predicts people will spend $157 billion on pet care this year. That's over $5 billion more than 2024 and a 70% increase from expenditures in 2018.

"We offer what resources we can to them to hopefully keep them in their home and help them the best we can," Ruyak said.

Those additional resources, like the Colorado Pet Pantry, are equally strained.

"Resources are being thinned out," said Colorado Pet Pantry Senior program manager Manuel Arizala. "It's very, very difficult to afford some of these things, and we've had a lot of people come out from the rural areas asking for additional help, and we're stretched to the limit."

Arizala said demand is still as high as it was during the pandemic, but they had full shelves back then. Today, he said his organization is hurting for donations.

TCRAS works directly with a different pantry called the "Pet Food Pantry for Teller County." Who said they are also seeing an increase in demand for pet food.

In 2024, APPA said consumers spent almost $66 billion on pet food alone. In 2018, total expenditures for food, vet care, medicine and all other pet services were $90.5 billion. The total figure was around $152 billion in 2024.

The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region said it has not seen a significant increase in people giving up their pets, but other shelters across the country report facing the same problem as TCRAS.

Stay up to date with the latest local news, sports, and investigations by downloading the KRDO13 app. Click here to download it from the Apple App Store. Android users can download it from Google Play here.