PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A troubling trend is unfolding at Arizona animal shelters, with an increasing number of families surrendering their pets. Shelter leaders say it’s not necessarily because they don’t want them, but because they feel they don’t have a choice.

In fact, shelter leaders say they’re seeing more dogs coming in than last year and the reasons tell a bigger story about life right now in Arizona. “As of this morning, we have 790. We try to operate within 640 dogs,” said Kim Powell, the communications supervisor for Maricopa County Animal Care & Control .

She said that owner surrenders make up a lot of that population. “Between May 1 of this year to July 31, we’ve had 241 owner surrenders come in. Last year, in that same time frame, we had 182,” she said.

Maricopa County i

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