CHICAGO — A steep rise in people returning pets they adopted during the coronavirus pandemic in some parts of the country may not be holding true in Chicago.

At One Tail at a Time, the business of animal rescue has not slowed. But after a huge surge of adoptions during the pandemic, pre-pandemic life is coming back.

“Our returns went up a little bit, but that’s normal for us.  Last year was such an anomaly, so many adoptions, a really low return rate, so things are just going back to normal,” said Heather Owen of One Tail at a Time.

While some shelters in the country report a massive increase in returns of adopted animals, the Chicago region, on the whole, has not.

“I think a lot of people get nervous if they get back to work they won’t have time but it’s normal to have a social life, you can absolutely still adopt a pet if you go back to work,” said Joan Haris of PAWS Chicago.

Still, organizations like PAWS Chicago is launching a program called Return To Routine, to help pets, and other owners, get back to life post-pandemic.

Rescues say people can still help, in a temporary way.

For more information on Return to Routine:

https://www.pawschicago.org/news-resources/all-about-dogs/returntoroutine

For more information on Fostering:

https://www.onetail.org/foster/

https://www.fetchingtailsfoundation.org/foster