The Victoria Humane Society is desperately looking for a new property to accommodate an overflow of abandoned animals.
With so many unwanted pets, staff say things are at a breaking point. People come to the shelter looking to surrender their animals but are turned away daily.
“The animal shelter is in a state I’ve never seen before. The rescues are overflowing, everybody has to say, ‘No, everybody has too many animals,'” says Penny Stone, executive director of the Victoria Humane Society.
“During COVID, no spay or neuter programs were running, so nothing got fixed, so we have puppies having puppies having puppies, and it is out of control.”
Stone told CHEK News, “Pop-up breeders were doing anything they could to meet the demands of all the people stuck at home who wanted puppies.”
Furthermore, she acknowledged how people are struggling to afford their animals, or to find housing that will allow pets in this current economic landscape.
“It’s really hard on us when we get calls, we have to say we have no place to put them,” added Stone.
“We have about 45 dogs on our waiting list to come in, we probably have double that in cats waiting to come in.”
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Currently, the shelter has more than 100 dogs and puppies and almost 200 cats and kittens in their care.
So, to help more animals, they’re looking for a bigger place than the one they have now at Glanford Avenue in Saanich.
A facility where they can perform more neutering and spaying, more interaction between animals and potential adopters, spaces to observe and assess animal behaviours, as well as an area where adopters can meet the animals and take them for a walk outside to bond.
The Victoria Humane Society says it’s been a long haul, and they’re now ready to buy some property and have fundraising campaigns to help them build the facility.
Stone reiterates they are looking for a property that will be zoned for the shelter, away from people.
“We’re desperately looking. If anybody has some property they haven’t thought of selling but maybe they would like to sell it or donate it, you can contact us, and we’ll get back to you and see if there’s something we can do,” she said.
Harry Corro
