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“To an animal, you’re their life. We want people to remember that pets are a lifetime commitment” Clark County Animal Shelter Director Adriana Willis said.

The rise of the COVID pandemic saw an increase in animal adoptions nationwide. While some of those animals have seen returns, the Clark County Animal Shelter does what it can to ensure animals are adopted into forever homes.

“We make sure adoption is a really personal experience,” said Adriana Wills, director of the Clark County Animal Shelter. “We make sure people are really serious about adoption before we send pets home with them.”

While animals adopted from the Clark County shelter haven’t been returned, Wills admits the shelter has received both animals that were adopted in other counties and strays that they can tell were abandoned, based on tracking chips.

According to Wills, some of these returns are related to evictions that the owners faced as COVID affected the economy. She recalled a litter of puppies surrendered due to one such eviction. Wills says the dogs were under-socialized, which induced anxiety when the puppies were exposed to the other shelter dogs. She added that the shelter works to train social anxiety out of these and any other animals they receive.

While circumstances like evictions make returning animals unavoidable, Wills reminds potential adopters pets are not to be a disposable commodity.

“To an animal, you’re their life. We want people to remember that pets are a lifetime commitment,” Willis said.

The Clark County Animal Shelter is located at 5000 Ironworks Road in Winchester, and is open . For more information, visit the shelter’s website at CarkShelter.org, or call them at (859) 737-0053.