A shelter in Fargo, North Dakota, reports that in its area, more than 700 animals are turned over to shelters right after the holidays every year.

An adoption group in tiny Edinburg, Texas, gets more than 400 animals. It says that the surrenders normally start with a phone call from someone saying, I got this [animal] for Christmas and I can't take care of it.

A humane society in Reading, Pennsylvania, says that most of its post-Christmas drop-offs are puppies and kittens. They're dumped soon after the holiday when training them requires too much time.

By January 4 last year, one Georgia animal shelter was posting on Facebook begging for adopters because of the onslaught of returned dogs it was bombarded with.
But some groups and shelters are catching on and taking affirmative steps to spare animals the trauma of being adopted into a home only to be abandoned once again.

An Idaho shelter that sees many animals who were adopted as presents returned after the holidays every year spoke with local news media and urged people not to give animals as surprise gifts.

A North Carolina adoption group that had noticed that calls were starting by noon on the day after Christmas instituted a policy banning people from acquiring animals to give as gifts.

A facility in Mississippi started banning all adoptions between December 20 and January 1 after animals were often taken right back.

Many of the largest animal shelters in Germany have banned adoptions between December 15 and January, and say that anyone who doesn't understand that is probably the wrong person to adopt.

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