The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting more than just people. It's causing an influx of all kinds of pets to the Hudson Valley from other places where they would have been euthanized.

What You Need To Know

  • Due to states being closed because of COVID-19, may southern shelters were not accepting additional animals

  • This caused an influx once shelters started to reopen, which they didn't have room for

  • The Ulster County SPCA took in some of them to avoid euthanizing them
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Under New York's PAUSE order, the Ulster County SPCA was not able to do any of its regular animal transports.

“What we do is we have many partners throughout the southern states, as well as New York City, that we work with to help save more lives," says Gina Carbonari, executive director at the Ulster County SPCA.

The shelter recently got its first transport of dogs from the south since the reopening of New York. The SPCA got eight puppies and five full-grown dogs.

“These guys only had about five days before they were going to be euthanized, simply because there was not enough space," Carbonari said.

She says because many southern states were also under their own version of New York's PAUSE order, the southern shelters could not accept additional dogs. This caused an increase of surrendered animals once the states started to reopen, and the shelters didn't have space for them.

“We are just fortunate that we had the space available right now. Throughout the PAUSE, we continued to do adoptions. We have had a tremendous amount of community support," Carbonari said.

The Ulster SPCA is also doing local transports from the animal care centers in New York City.

“We have been taking in animals of theirs that have been because their owners have either succumbed or become ill, or had other issues directly related to the COVID outbreak," Carbonari said.