6 westword.com WESTWORD MAY 29-JUNE 4, 2025 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | out. Gripes on social media about dogs at bars and restaurants are common. Efforts to turn public open space into dog parks are typically met with opposition from those concerned about environmental damage from dog urine and feces, attacks and fi ghts because of off-leash dogs, and interruptions to human recreation. All of these issues — from eye-catching amounts of dog poop to crowded animal shelters to the dangers of off-leash dogs — are very real in Denver. But so is this city’s love of dogs. As living in Denver becomes more and more expensive, it stands to reason that we’ll only see more pets and fewer kids. Data shows we already have more dogs than chil- dren, and the city is currently seeing a decline in Denver Public Schools enrollment while the pound experiences a record number of surrendered animals. We may have already rolled over, but maybe an old city can learn new tricks. Pup Talk GINA BETTERS AND HER DOG, CHARLEY, HAVE OVER 130,000 FOLLOWERS EAGER TO EXPLORE DENVER. BY CATIE C HESHIRE When Gina Betters and husband Taylor walk their dog, Charley, around town, they often get recognized. Or, rather, Charley does. The fl uffy brown dog with white mark- ings on his chest and paws is an Instagram celebrity in the Denver dog community ow- ing to Betters’s account @denverdogguide, which has amassed 130,000 followers in the four years since the Betters family moved to Denver from Wisconsin. “It’s just really surprised me how re- sponsive and appreciative the community has been,” Betters says. “I didn’t intend to be an infl uencer, so I think it’s just really sweet. I feel very grateful to be appreciated in this community and that people trust us.” A speech language pathologist who works in schools, Betters has the summer months off; while her husband is stuck at the offi ce, she and Charley are free to hang out. “I started looking up dog-friendly things to do in Denver and Colorado, just as a way to explore and get my bearings and get comfortable living here,” she recalls. “I realized that there’s not a good resource for dog-friendly things...or it’s not always accurate or there’s nobody on the ground here that’s really updating it.” She felt like she could help fi ll the gap for that valuable information, so she started sharing places she’d found that were both fun and dog-friendly on Instagram, cataloging her adventures with Charley. “I did not expect it to take off in the way it did, but there were a lot of people also looking for that information,” Betters says. “It has been crazy, like, truly, truly insane. I initially thought it was just going to be like a little diary that I could look back on of things that Charley and I did.” While Betters still works in schools, she considers Denver Dog Guide her dream hobby. She tries to be hyperlocal, showcasing classic “Denver” things on her Instagram, including a recurring snow report where she judges how big a snowstorm is by measuring the level of snow against Charley’s legs.The positivity of the dog community in Colorado keeps her motivated, and she tries to show- case places that don’t just accept dogs but truly welcome them. “We joke in the dog creatorsphere that there’s a difference between dog-friendly and dog-loving,” Betters says, so she high- lights spots that have treats or accommoda- tions specifi cally for dogs and focuses on sharing places where both she and Charley, a golden retriever-basset hound mix, had a great time. Betters comes up with the majority of her content; an estimated 25 percent or less comes from partnerships with businesses. Betters often doesn’t make money off the partnership, but helps get publicity for events or specials at local businesses that sound fun. “I know that they don’t have a budget, but I’m just happy to bridge that gap of them wanting to promote that they’re dog- friendly and me wanting people to experience those things for their dog,” Betters says. “The ones that I end up posting are usually the most genuine to me as someone who started this page, as just a regular person looking for this.” For young Millennials and Gen Z people, calling businesses on the phone is tough. Though Betters is in that age group, she braves the phone for the sake of everyone else. “I would never want someone to show up and they’re not dog- friendly,” she says. “I make sure to check with local businesses. I’ll message them on Instagram, call them, just to make sure that both sides are protected and I’m not sending people somewhere that’s not dog-friendly or getting a business in a tough position.” She has a giant Google Doc of places she has researched, confi rming their dog regu- lations. She’s now working on turning the product into a public-facing map that people could pay a small fee to purchase. “I started making pins on a Google map and so I have this map ready,” Betters says. “I’m just trying to fi gure out the most effi cient way to relate it to people. It really is a map of everything that I know in Denver to be dog-friendly.” She is also hoping to partner with more rescue organizations to help get more dogs adopted and create visibility for local places that help dogs. She sees Denver as an extremely dog- loving city and believes people gravitate to her page because they don’t want to simply ditch their dogs at home. “I really just want to help bridge that gap of I want to leave my house and I want to take my dog, but where can I go?” she says. “We, as dog owners, also hold a special place in our hearts for local establishments that honor those relation- ships and want us to bring our dogs.” One of her most frequent requests comes from people wondering where dogs are allowed inside in the winter. “If they can bring their dog, Denver will show up in the masses,” Betters notes. “I tell businesses when I post, ‘Are you prepared for people to come?’” Still, Betters knows that not everyone in Denver is all in on dogs, so she tries to stave off contentious situations by making it obvious where dogs are welcome. She encourages people to recognize not just where their dog would be comfortable, but where others would be comfortable with the dog. “Obviously, them being in grocery stores and places they aren’t supposed to be is a huge problem,” she says. “In Palisade at a winery, they had a sign that was like, ‘If your dog is friendly, we are dog-friendly,’ and I think that’s a really great rule to have,” Betters adds. Right now, Betters is looking forward to another summer of adventures with ten- year-old Charley, particularly at yappy hours such as those coming to FIRE Restaurant & Lounge at the Art Hotel. But there’s one place she knows they’ll return to again and again. “An evening walk around Sloan’s Lake and then go catch a happy hour at The Patio, listen to live music, give my dog a dog bowl, that’s my dream,” Betters says. “That’s my favorite thing.” Dog Gone DENVER PET OWNERS ARE SENDING THEIR POOCHES TO THE POUND IN RECORD NUMBERS. BY HANNAH METZGER In the fi rst 138 days of this year, 634 dogs were taken to the Denver Animal Shelter by their owners...and left there. That’s nearly fi ve dogs surrendered to the one shelter every day of 2025 — and the situation is only getting worse. Dog surren- ders at the City of Denver’s shelter are up 237 percent compared to the same period in 2019, according to city data. That year, there were 544 surrenders total; a number 2025 surpassed weeks ago, around four months into the year. Just fi ve years ago, dog surrenders at the shelter were on a steady decline, reducing annually from 2018 to 2019 to 2020, before seeing a spike in 2021. Since then, they’ve jumped by between 26 percent and 42 per- cent every year. They’re on track to do the same in 2025. “It’s a growing trend at our shelter,” says Melanie Sobel, the director of Denver Ani- mal Protection, which oversees the Denver Animal Shelter. “We’re seeing a signifi cant increase, even from last year to this year.” Sobel attributes the rise in owner surren- ders to several contributing factors, some of which date back to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly one in fi ve American households adopted a pet during the pandemic, ac- cording to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The wave in demand resulted in breeders producing more dogs, many of which were not spayed or neutered. At the same time, pandemic restrictions limited service at veterinary clin- ics, further reducing access to spay and neu- ter care for these new pets, Sobel explains. Puppies soon fl ooded shelters: some ac- cidental litters from the new, intact dogs adopted by Coloradans, and others left over from breeders who couldn’t unload them after the COVID-boom died down. In many instances, though, the original pandemic pup is the one left at the pound. “A lot of people were working from home during the pandemic when they got ani- mals,” Sobel says. “When they had to go back to work [in person], dogs started having behavioral problems because they weren’t properly socialized, they weren’t properly trained. We had surrenders because people didn’t want the animal anymore, we had an infl ux of adolescent young adult dogs.” The surrenders haven’t slowed with the pandemic’s end. Colorado and the nation at large have suffered from a shortage of veterinarians in recent years, continuing the lack of access to spay and neuter care. Beyond that, the shortage means all vet care is harder to access and more expensive, fi nancially straining pet owners. In addition to surrenders, the Denver Animal Shelter has seen a staggering increase in owners bringing dogs to be put down. So far this year, 119 dogs were surrendered to the shelter for euthanasia, compared to 38 at this time in 2019. Gone to the Dogs? continued from page 5 continued on page 8 Charley loves a good Denver skyline view. GINA BETTERS
