Kingston Humane Society overwhelmed with animals after pandemic pet craze
Global News
The humane society says it's caring for a record number of animals following the pandemic pet craze. Now, they're asking for help through adoptions, fostering or donations.
The Kingston Humane Society has been looking after and finding new homes for animals for more than 100 years, but in that century of care, the number of animals coming through their doors has never been higher than it is right now.
“With nearly 300 animals in care, we’ve never seen that before at a single point in time,” said Gord Hunter, executive director of the humane society.
Gord says more than 110 of those animals are up for adoption, another record number.
The shelter has a capacity for 124 animals but that’s been stretched to over 140 animals on site. Even the staff room is being used to house some smaller animals.
Hunter says if it wasn’t for individuals that foster animals in their homes, the situation would be even more dire.
“Without our foster program we’d be turning animals away by the hundreds, because the foster program has allowed us to expand our capacity, essentially,” he said.
Hunter says there are a variety of reasons why the humane society is seeing this high volume of pets, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made an impact.
“People are vaccinated, they’re returning to workplaces and that’s all great, but what we’re seeing is people maybe taking on animals that they weren’t prepared to care for after COVID or they didn’t consider long term,” he said.
