Name: Government shutdown impact on pets
Uploaded: 2025-11-05T16:33:41.853Z
Duration: 3 min 43 s
Description: The Humane Society of Tampa Bay says it is seeing an increase in pet owners who can no longer afford to care for their animals during the government shutdown. FOX 13’s Regina Gonzalez explains how the organization is helping.

The Humane Society of Tampa Bay says it is seeing an increase in pet owners who can no longer afford to care for their animals during the government shutdown. FOX 13’s Regina Gonzalez explains how the organization is helping.

Tampa Bay

The Humane Society of Tampa Bay reports a rise in pet owners surrendering their animals due to financial difficulties caused by the economy and a recent government shutdown. To address this, the organization has expanded its pet pantry program, providing free pet food and supplies to families in need.

The pet pantry operates on Tuesdays and Saturdays, with additional support available through the intake department and a delivery service for homebound individuals. The Humane Society is also seeking donations of pet food and supplies to help prevent further surrenders and support families during this challenging period.

Government shutdown impact on pets

with more families feeling the financial strain from the economy and recent government shutdown. The Humane Society of Tampa Bay says they're seeing a rise in pet owners who can no longer afford to care for their animals. Fox 13's Regina Gonzalez is live this morning with a look at one of the programs helping families keep their pets. Good morning Regina. Good morning to you guys. That's right, times are tough and unfortunately the Humane Society of Tampa Bay says they've seen pet owners walking through their doors but it's not always to adopt, it's to surrender animals because they're just strapped for cash and can't afford the supplies to take care of them. Well we are standing outside of the pet pantry here at the shelter. It's not open technically today but they did set it up so you can see how it normally operates on distribution days which are Tuesday and Saturday. Pretty straightforward, you can come here, get what you need so that way you don't have to think about possibly getting rid of your fur baby. To talk more about it we are being joined by Director of Facilities and Operations Lon Savini. Lon, it is so heartbreaking to hear the stories that come in every single day about people just being so financially burdened that they don't know if they can keep their animals. What have some of those conversations been like? Good morning. Yeah, good morning to you guys. So like yesterday we posted about the pet pantry on Facebook and we had about 21 new customers and some of them being furloughed employees, TSA agents, they didn't know that we had this and their concern was how are they gonna afford to keep their pets besides feeding themselves. So we turned our maintenance garage into a pet pantry a long time ago and so every Tuesday and Saturday like you said from 9 o'clock to 5 o'clock you can come here, you can get a free bag of cat food, you can get a free bag of dog food and we have other stuff like leashes and collars and stuff like that and we've kind of turned into a thrift shop with all the donations that we're receiving where you can't afford stuff out in retail but if you want to come and donate to the Humane Society we have a lot of items that you would probably pay a lot for out in retail and you can save some money here. This is so great to see critical at a time like this. Do you plan on opening extra days given the circumstances or what does that look like if somebody can't necessarily make it here on a Tuesday or Saturday? Yeah we're gonna monitor that flow but our intake department is open seven days a week so if you can't make it here on one of the normal days you can come any other day of the week that we're not open go to intake they'll have the free cat and dog food there that they will be able to give to you as well. And as far as donations go you kind of touched on everything you have here what are you guys most looking for what do you guys need? Well we want to help people feed their animals and keep them from turning them into the shelter so we need cat food we need dog food we need wet food for both and just the basic needs like puppy pads and treats and stuff like that just to keep the pets happy in the home. Aside from the pet pantry you guys offer other services at low cost to help people in the Tampa Bay area what does that look like? So our animal hospital is open Monday through Saturday it's a low-cost Wellness Center we also do surgeries spay or neuter and you just come there you make appointments so you can get your basic vaccines and stuff like that at a very low cost even if you have a normal vet we want you to bring your medical records from there and so we can have a look at it while we're here. Besides the hospital we also have our animals program which is like meals on wheels so people that don't have transportation to come down here there you know they don't have gas money and whatnot we will deliver on the first Saturday of the month food to your house and that's mainly for people that are homebound. Well thank you so much for giving us a look at the pet pantry we really appreciate everything you guys are doing to help folks at this time. Guys we'll be here the rest of the morning on Good Day Tampa Bay so we'll continue to show you everything that's here again they are open nine right behind me nine to five every Tuesday and Saturday if you need something we'll send it back to you. Yeah that's a wonderful service that they provide all right Regina we'll talk again soon thank you

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