Shelter dogs, cats waiting longer to find forever homes
CBC
If you've been thinking of adopting a pet, the Thunder Bay and District Humane Society would love to hear from you.
This year, in addition to the usual summer influx of puppies and kittens, the society is also seeing an unusually high number of adult dogs in care, said executive director Shawna Beaulieu.
At this time last year the humane society had nine dogs in its care, Beaulieu said. As of Friday, it was caring for 20 –making the shelter a much busier place.
"Well, there's a huge adjustment going from nine dogs to 20 dogs, although we have a really great animal care team on site and some really awesome volunteers. It does increase our need for more staffing, which is costly, and also our need for more volunteers, especially when it comes to just day-to-day activity, laundry, washing dishes, walking dogs," she said, adding that they've also expanded into kennel areas that aren't normally used for dogs awaiting adoption.
While some shelters have reported an influx of so called 'pandemic puppies,' Beaulieu said that's not the trend being observed at her organization.
Instead, while the number of animals coming into care is on par with previous years, the interest in adoption is not.
"We are getting fewer applications," Beaulieu said. "Last year, if we're looking in comparison, an adult dog on average would spend about six days in shelter before they were adopted."
"Now, an average length of stay for a dog has been up to 44 days."
Cats, too, are affected, and the Humane Society is seeing similar trends when it comes to length of stay, she said, especially for animals with special needs.
Beaulieu said while it's hard to say why applications are down, several factors may be at play, including the pandemic recovery.
"I think it would be safe to assume with people out and traveling and socializing a lot more, [after] being isolated for two years, likely people don't want to be at home stuck taking on a new pet and restricting them from doing some vacation," she said, adding that once people settle into fall routines, she hopes adoptions will pick up.
Another factor, she said, might be the ongoing veterinary shortage.
"You know, there's a veterinary shortage in all of North America, but in Thunder Bay, we are quite hard-hit. We just don't have the amount of veterinarians that we need in order to support the amount of animals in our community. And that's due to the overpopulation of animals that we have," she said.
She said that's also one reason the humane society has put a focus on it's spay/neuter clinic.
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