Animal welfare groups in Calgary struggling to keep up with pet surrenders

Several animal shelters in the Calgary area are at capacity, with waitlists on top of that, and welfare organizations say it's linked to a growing number of owners surrendering their pets.

The Calgary Humane Society, the Meow Foundation and the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS) are all full. The animal welfare organizations say affordability struggles and landlords not accepting pets are key reasons for the uptick in surrendered animals.

"I would say this is unfortunately our new normal," said Rachel Cote, director of programs for AARCS.

Before COVID-19, the rescue society accepted 150 to 200 surrender requests a year from the general public.

This year, Cote says, it's received about 900 requests so far.

She notes more animals are staying in the shelter's care for longer.

"We are seeing less adoptions than we were five or six years ago," said Cote, adding the economy is likely playing a large role in the growing surrender requests.

Because the organization can't accommodate every request, it's been trying to help pet owners care for their animals by providing support. It asks if there's anything it can do to help keep pets in their homes.

"We have been able to divert a few of them through some assistance programs and keep families together, which has been really nice to see," said Cote. "It's tough out there for people, and we obviously want to do what we can to keep families together."

Cote says the organization has a pet food assistance program, which gives free pet food to owners in need of support. That program is also seeing more people asking for that type of help to get them through to the next paycheque.

"We started off seeing maybe 50 or 60 requests [for that program] per month. The last couple of months, we've seen 500-plus animals needing help," she said. "But it's a really great way for us to keep animals out of the shelter system and in their homes with their families."

Landlords seeking pet-free tenants

AARCS isn't the only agency dealing with these problems.

According to the Calgary Humane Society, increasingly strained financial situations, as well as landlords wanting pet-free tenants amid the city's housing crisis, are two of the key drivers of the surge in surrendered animals.

"I think sometimes in some households, companion animals are being put into the luxury category because Calgarians are faced with affordability issues in their household," said Anna-Lee Fitzsimmons, public relations director with the Calgary Humane Society.

She says the humane society took in 4,133 animals in 2023. This year, it's on track to exceed that number.

"Within that bracket of owner surrender, what we are seeing is an increase in the number of animals being surrendered because their owners cannot find pet-friendly housing."

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Fitzsimmons says the organization's animal surrender waitlist used to be a lot more manageable than it is now.

"Sometimes I think there's a misunderstanding in the community that our doors are kind of permanently open, there's always kennels empty," she said. "Sadly, that's just not the case."

Fitzsimmons says animal intakes are managed by what the organization calls its "capacity for care," meaning that the number of animals taken in depends on how many animals can be realistically and responsibly accommodated.

Animals are triaged on a waitlist, so the most urgent situations are dealt with first.

"We always have upwards of 100 animals on that waitlist. Sometimes there's 200 animals, depending on the time of year. We saw a huge surge in October, for whatever reason," said Fitzsimmons.

Owner surrenders rising

Much like AARCS and the Calgary Humane Society, the number of owner surrender requests is trending upward with the Meow Foundation as well.

"Most of those requests are based on financial need, financial emergency, housing crisis. So we've sort of shifted our focus a little bit so that we can support those Calgarians as well," said Jenna McFarland, program director for the Meow Foundation.

"Before the pandemic, owner surrenders comprised maybe 30 per cent of our total overall intakes. Now we're definitely up past the 50 per cent mark, and that's significantly increased in the last year and we're kind of attributing that to the housing crisis."

McFarland says the organization is often hearing from people who are "already in a bit of an economic crisis."

She also believes that because housing is in high demand, landlords can add a no-pet clause to their lease, which means more people are being pushed to surrender their pets in order to find a place to live.

Despite the growing number of pets in need of care, the organizations say, for the most part, pet adoptions are steady year-over-year.

Cote says that while AARCS expects adoptions to go up a bit during the holiday season, the increase won't necessarily offset the number of surrendered pets.

Both AARCS and the Calgary Humane Society are also offering promotions such as discounted adoption fees in order to get more animals connected with families.