A high volume of cats and dogs were surrendered to Brandon’s two oldest animal rescues in 2023. The Brandon Humane Society (BHS) and Funds for Furry Friends (FFFF) have been operating at full capacity all year and are looking both for more adoptions and more people who are able to foster dogs and cats in their homes until the animals get adopted.
Brian Simard, adoption counsellor with the Brandon Humane Society, said the rescue always has dogs and cats waiting to get in as soon as another animal is adopted. The BHS currently has more than 50 animals in its building, plus more being fostered. Part of the problem, he said, is more animal have been surrendered — individuals who have adopted an animal and returned it — last year compared to previous years.
“The last year, there has been a lot more people wanting to surrender their pets, not necessarily that they had adopted from us, but just in general,” Simard said. “I think there’s a lot of reasons. Not the least of which would be like everything costing more. And also, first-time pet owners finding a vet, especially in Brandon.”
The lingering effects of COVID adoptions is another factor, he said. “We were strict with our adoptions during COVID, as we didn’t want people not thinking things through and then when things went back to normal, realizing they didn’t have time for a pet. But I think everyone’s kind of been seeing that increase in surrenders.”
D’Arcy Barker, chief financial officer with FFFF, said more kittens and puppies this year could be due to the vet shortage in Brandon.
“That’s definitely part of it,” Barker said. “There’s no doubt, having a vet relationship has gone down for some individuals, including some families who have had a previous vet relationship with another animal. That animal passes away, they’d gone to that same vet with a new animal, and they’ve had hard time getting in.
“It’s really nothing to do with the veterinarian. They’re understaffed and overworked. And we’ve lost a lot of professionals in western Manitoba. It’s hard to spread that work around. They’ve had to make a lot of hard decisions, for sure.”
Barker said between the Humane Society and FFFF they rescue nearly all of the dogs and a lot of the cats from the Brandon City Pound before there are euthanized. However, the cat population is a growing concern.
“When it comes to the dogs, we’re pretty good at saving most, if not all, of the dogs that are at the Brandon City Pound. Plus, what’s interesting is the city pound itself, they’re pretty good at adopting out. In fact, we encourage people, you know, before they adopt from anybody or any rescue, we tell them to go to Brandon City Pound, or any pound for that matter, because those animals are at highest risk of euthanasia,” Barker said.
“But when it comes to cats, and this is an unfortunate statistic, we don’t keep up between the rescues who do save (cats) from the Brandon City Pound. And the pound adopting out directly, they still euthanize — and that’s over and above medical and behavioural issues. Cats have always been considered the disposable breed. And it’s unfortunate.”
While the Brandon Humane Society has a facility to keep dogs and cats on 17th Street East, there are still a large number of pets being fostered in private homes — although cats are more difficult to find fosters for as cats can’t usually be fostered together in one home.
FFFF completely relies on foster homes, and right now has 35 dogs available for adoption being fostered, but it doesn’t come close to meeting the need.
“We could triple the number of fosters we have right now and not meet the demand that we have for owner surrenders — and for animals coming into rescue through other rescues, or animals that have been abandoned at the city pound and are scheduled for euthanasia,” Barker said.
The local Petsmart approached FFFF and offered six cat spaces at their store. Barker said FFFF shares the spaces with another local rescue, but he said the organization was grateful for the help.
“We’ve kind of found that sweet spot where we are working with just the right amount of cat foster homes, plus Petsmart itself. Obviously, cats are a different animal than dogs. You can pile a lot of dogs together and foster them. But cats, you can sometimes get cats that hate each other. It’s not always easy with cats,” Barker said.
» khenderson@brandonsun.com
