‘We're all just absolutely doing our best to keep our heads above water': Saving Grace Animal Society
More Albertans just don't have the money to care for their pets so their animals are ending up at rescue shelters, says Saving Grace Animal Society which is at overcapacity.
“People just aren't able to afford any vet care on their own due to the increased cost of living and it's putting more pressure on our organization and all the other organizations in our province,” said co-executive director Erin Deems.
Saving Grace now has about 350 dogs and cats. The shelter has 24 dogs, 20 puppies and about 50 cats, so most of the animals are in foster care.
She said Albertans aren't spending the money to spay or neuter their pets resulting in unwanted litters, and spring litters are arriving.
“We're faced with too many animals that need to come in, but not enough funding or availability to take them in, and not enough adoptions to get them back out the door.”
She said it seems that people are making responsible financial decisions and are deciding not to adopt in the face of the increasing cost of living so adoptions have definitely slowed down. Also, many people already adopted pets during the pandemic.
The Alix-based non-profit is also seeing many more injured pets.
“We are very much a field operation so we're seeing these animals in person and it's really hard to say no to an animal suffering in front of us. So we are often taking on the more major and extreme medical cases to give those animals a second chance.”
Deems said the focus is on educating people about responsible pet ownership which includes spaying or neutering, getting pet insurance, and allocating money to provide their pets life-long care so they aren't put into the position of having to surrender their pets, or end up with unwanted litters.
“Education is a key component. Also we're trying to fundraise as much as we possibly can in any avenue, from hosting galas to bottle donation. Every dollar helps.”
She said animal rescues are networking and collaborating, but everyone is facing the same funding and overcapacity issues.
“Nobody is doing great right now. Nobody has excess funding. Nobody has excess space. We're all just absolutely doing our best to keep our heads above water and be able to serve our province the best we can.”
It's a very difficult industry to be in right now so she also wanted to remind people to be kind to rescuers, Deems added.
“If they can't help you at that moment, it's not that they don't want to. It's because we just can't.”
