While many pets in the Denver area enjoy snuggling up to their owners during the holiday season, not all are so lucky.

"We've got an amazing team here who do their best to make sure that that process is not as scary as it could potentially be for the animal, but it is something that is a huge change for them," said Aidan McMorrow, the Denver Animal Shelter's community engagement administrator.

CBS

While the shelter is far from max capacity at the moment, they've been stretched thin at times throughout the year, and say they've seen around a 16% increase, equaling hundreds more surrenders from 2024 to 2025.

"An increase in our population here is always going to have a somewhat negative effect on our ability to give individual animals more attention and to schedule these animals for spay

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