ByMichal Higdon|March 23, 2021 at 7:40 AM EDT - Updated March 23 at 8:31 AM
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Tuesday is National Puppy Day, a day celebrates the unconditional love and affection puppies bring to people’s lives.
Charleston Animal Society President and CEO Joe Elmore says at the start of the pandemic they were seeing fewer pets coming through animal shelters.
“It’s very steady for Charleston Animal Society,” Elmore says. “Sometimes it goes up because of a cruelty case or perhaps of a puppy mill or hoarding situations – which are more prevalent than puppy mills in South Carolina. Then we try to help out our brothers and sisters in South Carolina across the state in animal shelters when they’re overwhelmed. It really ebbs and flows if you will. Right now it’s pretty steady. Our community continues to support us. They understand the need to rescue animals in shelters.”
The day is also meant to bring awareness to the need for homes for orphaned pups and even grown dogs that all know are still just puppies at heart.
Unfortunately, Elmore says he’s seeing a terrible increase in animal cruelty cases in our area.
“For the last 8 to 9 weeks, we have seen the prevalence of cruelty cases, not only in Charleston County but across our entire state,” Elmore says. “All kinds of different cruelty cases. Everything from hoarding situations to animals being torn from their families at gunpoint to just heinous acts and physical assaults on animals and abandonment. All across the board. We think it’s an outlier but the reality is we are overwhelmed with these cruelty cases.”
Elmore says in that eight to nine week timeframe they have had more than 20 cases of animal cruelty come through their organization. They do have rewards out on some of them right now.
Learn more about the Charleston Animal Society and their fight for life on their website.
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