Animal shelters inundated with ‘pandemic pups’ as adoptive owners’ attention lags July 16, 2021 8:20 PM CNN KPIX OAKLAND, California (KPIX) — During the COVID lockdowns, record numbers of people brought new pets into their homes, in many cases adopting from shelters and rescues. With COVID restrictions lifting and people going back to work, shelters are now seeing the opposite — a record number of people looking to surrender their dogs. Rocket Dog Rescue in Oakland has so many dogs right now, they’ve set up makeshift kennels in their lobby. “Just almost overnight we became overly full. The shelters are overburdened,” said Pali Boucher, the founder of Rocket Dog Rescue.