‘It's all so heartbreaking’: SNAP collapse forces families to turn to pet food banks, with the most desperate surrendering their pets during shutdown

For many households living paycheck to paycheck, the SNAP disruption exposed just how thin the financial margin has become.

‘I don’t even make enough money for all my bills’

In New Orleans, 46-year-old auto parts store worker Sarah Lungwitz feared she might have to give up her cat, Bambi, and two dogs, Spike and Chloe. With SNAP payments disrupted, she had no idea how she would stretch her budget for both groceries and pet food.

“I don’t even make enough money for all my bills, let alone groceries,” she told ABC News (1).

Volunteers from Care for Pets, a Rockford, Illinois–based nonprofit, stepped in with a grocery gift card, allowing her to purchase food for herself and her animals.

SNAP dollars cannot be used for pet food, according to the program’s eligibility rules (2). However, for many families living below the poverty line, the benefit indirectly frees up cash to buy pet food or allows them to supplement their pet's diet with food from their household. When payments are delayed, everything collapses at once.

The Supreme Court’s temporary ruling to block a court order (3) requiring full SNAP payments, as the shutdown neared its end, only widened the uncertainty. Some households had already received partial benefits, while others received nothing.

“It’s also common for owners to supplement or entirely feed their animals human food that was purchased using SNAP,” Stephanie Hicks, executive director of Care for Pets, told ABC News.

“When that food disappears, they panic.”

Shelters feared a surge in surrendered animals

About 20 million pets in the U.S. live in households experiencing poverty, according to a survey (4) conducted on behalf of the American Humane Society (4). Economic strain is consistently one of the top reasons people surrender animals to shelters.

Shelters and food pantries across the country were bracing for impact during the shutdown, as ABC reported:

• New Leash on Life in Lebanon, Tennessee, saw its food pantry usage jump to 125 families in October, up from 75 to 100 families in a typical month.

• The Companion Animal Alliance in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, stated that it was considering diverting funds away from veterinary care to purchase more food.

• Zeus’ Rescues in New Orleans distributed twice the usual amount of free pet food last month.

“In my 20 years of doing this, it’s never been this bad,” Zeus’ Rescues founder Michelle Cheramie told the news outlet. “It’s all so heartbreaking.”

She noted that people were desperate; they were even dumping animals in their yard.

A symptom of a more profound budget crisis

The SNAP delays reveal just how fragile household finances have become.

The Federal Reserve’s annual Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households shows that a majority of Americans lack enough emergency savings to absorb even a single income disruption. For SNAP households specifically, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) notes that the average benefit is just $187 per person per month (5).

In Tampa, laid-off marketing professional Kas Miller created the Tampa Bay SNAP Gap Mega List (6), a resource database pulling together food banks and meal programs across Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties.