Overcrowding remains an issue at local Humane Society

Humane Society photo taken by – Sandeep Kaur

By- Sandeep Kaur

BELLEVILLE –  The Hastings-Prince Edward Humane Society says despite opening a new shelter a year ago, overcrowding remains an issue.

“We are overcapacity,” said Caitlyn Dean, a Humane Society employee working on fundraising for the new shelter.

“We saw an influx this summer of kittens…followed by lots of dogs,”she said. 

This week, the society marked  World Animal and Pet Day as well as the first anniversary of their new facility on Wallbridge-Loyalist Rd. 

Since the new shelter officially opened on October 4, 2022, the shelter has welcomed 1288 cats, 458 dogs, 101 rabbits, 53 rats, 48 guinea pigs, five goats, 18 chickens, and others, including parrots and ferrets. ”

The overcrowding is one of the reasons behind the launch this week of a new program called Seniors for Seniors.

With the support of a local Home Hardware, the society is waiving the adoption fees on older dogs adopted by seniors in the community. Any person sixty and above can adopt any animal six and up for free.

Anne Munro is the communications and marketing manager at the society. She says younger and smaller dogs are adopted more quickly.

“Older sick animals tend to stay in shelters for months,” she says, contributing to the overcrowding problem. The Society hopes its new program will help address that problem. 

“This is our attempt to help older animals find a new home,” she said. 

Both Munro and Dean say there are other reasons overcrowding remains an issue. 

Inflation is one of them. Everything is more costly these days, including food, veterinary care and accommodation. Many people are unable to care for their pets, especially if they become ill. Getting accommodations is more challenging when you have pets since some landlords are hesitant to lease to people who have dogs.

Another reason for the overcrowding is that we have a lot of wild cats in this region, and animal control regularly brings them to the society when they are pregnant.  

And Dean says there’s another reason for the overcrowding. Adopted pets have been returned to the shelter. This is especially the case with rabbits, cats, and dogs. 

Dean calls them “pandemic pets”

“We have the people that are returning back to work post-pandemic that all of a sudden don’t have time for all these pandemic pets that they got.”