AILSA CHANG, HOST:
More people are giving up their cats and dogs. That's because, with inflation, it's gotten more expensive to take care of a pet. And the cost of finding those pets new homes has also increased for the animal welfare community. Anavi Prakash, with member station KMUW, has this story.
ANAVI PRAKASH, BYLINE: On a recent morning, Linda Ruzich picks up a female German shepherd at the Kansas Humane Society in Wichita.
LINDA RUZICH: What are you doing, pretty girl?
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG WHIMPERING)
RUZICH: What are you doing?
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG WHIMPERING)
RUZICH: Pretty girl.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG WHIMPERING)
PRAKASH: Ruzich calls her pretty girl because this stray dog doesn't have a name of her own yet.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG WHIMPERING)
RUZICH: Yes, that's a good girl. Use your voice.
PRAKASH: Ruzich is taking her halfway from Wichita in South Central Kansas to a rescue in Topeka in the northeast of the state. When rescues and shelters need to offload animals, transporters are called to action.
RUZICH: I would hope, at some point in time, I wouldn't be transporting because there was no need for it. But it just seems like, I think that, and then it gets crazier.
PRAKASH: And each trip has also gotten way more expensive. Ruzich says she's seen a tank of gas go from $40 to $75. Christy Fischer is the executive director of Wichita Animal Action League. Shelters and rescues are constantly operating at capacity, she says.
CHRISTY FISCHER: You know, nationwide, we are just to the point where a lot of rescues and shelters are essentially just warehousing animals because there's just nowhere for them to go, and/or kind of just transferring animals from one facility to another.
PRAKASH: In 2025, the U.S. saw about 1.3 million animals arrive into shelters and rescues, about a 3% increase from 2024. That's according to the ASPCA. At the same time, just more than 900,000 animals left shelters and rescues.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG WHIMPERING)
RUZICH: That's right. We're hurrying.
PRAKASH: Ruzich has been driving shelter animals for about 15 years. She says she drives an average of 2,000 miles a month. At the halfway point, Ruzich passes the German shepherd onto the next transporter.
RUZICH: You get the paperwork?
(SOUNDBITE OF PLASTIC RUSTLING)
UNIDENTIFIED TRANSPORTER: OK. I got treats, paperwork.
RUZICH: She drank water. She didn't pee or poo.
UNIDENTIFIED TRANSPORTER: OK.
PRAKASH: Nika Orebaugh is the supervisor for Sedgwick County Animal Control.
NIKA OREBAUGH: Some of our transporters that were really tried and true transporters, who are retired and on fixed incomes, simply can no longer afford to transport 'cause they can't afford the increasing price in gas.
PRAKASH: Nearly every day, shelters and rescues have agonizing conversations with people who are giving up their pets. Here's Fischer again.
FISCHER: The vast majority of people that we are talking to are absolutely desperate to find places for their pets, sometimes even to the point of, you know, threatening to shoot their pets if we don't take them because they feel like they've exhausted all of their resources. It sucks a bit of your soul out every time you hear that.
PRAKASH: She wants to help every animal, she says. But sometimes it just isn't possible. For NPR News, I'm Anavi Prakash in Wichita.
(SOUNDBITE OF DAFT PUNK AND JULIAN CASABLANCAS SONG, "INSTANT CRUSH") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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