Gwen Smith of Pawcatuck always had dogs, so last March when she was ready to adopt several months after her two beloved dogs had died, she didn’t expect to be slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic pet rush.
“It took us months and months to put in an application,” Smith recalled. “As soon as we put it in, the dog we were looking at was gone, and we had to start all over again.”
Smith and her husband, Tom Ahlgren, heard similar stories at the Westerly dog park. People wanting to adopt pets during the COVID-19 pandemic were running into the dual problem of low supply and high demand.