'Too long for any animal to be in shelters': Central Alberta Humane Society seeing drop in adoptions

A cat up for adoption at the Central Alberta Humane Society on Wednesday June 5, 2024. (Adel Ahmed/CTV News Edmonton)

The Central Alberta Humane Society is seeing a drop in adoptions, but not in the amount of animals coming in.

The Humane Society takes in animals for various reasons, including surrenders, lost and found animals, RCMP transfers and emergency boarding.

They facilitate adoptions so animals can find forever homes, but the central Alberta branch, which is based in Red Deer, has seen a drop in adoptions so far this year.

"From January to May, we adopted out 189 (animals), but we took in 250," said Kelly Richard, the fund development coordinator at the Central Alberta Humane Society. "Typically we adopt out about 600 in a year."

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"When we don't have a lot of adoptions, then unfortunately, our kennels fill up so we're not able to help as many animals as we should," said Holly Burke, a registered veterinary technician. "When more adoptions come in, then we're able to help more dogs and cats come in from not the best circumstances."

The organization also has a waitlist of people in line to surrender their cats and dogs.

Part of the issue is affordability, people can't necessarily afford the costs associated with having animals, or they're downsizing their homes and don't have room anymore, according to Richard.

"Food costs have increased for us to feed the animals (by) 35 per cent, medications have increased as well, the electricity, the water, all of those things have increased costs for us and for the general public," Richard said.

One method to help with adoptions is lowering the fee from $425 to $225 for animals that have been at the Humane Society for a longer time.

Dogs up for adoption at the Central Alberta Humane Society on Wednesday June 5, 2024. (Adel Ahmed/CTV News Edmonton)

"All of the animals that we have available are all either spayed or neutered, they're all microchipped, they're all vaccinated, they've had a health check," Richard said. "They don't have much of an expense attached to them after they leave here."

At least five dogs and 20 cats have been at the shelter for nearly a year.

"The sad thing is, it's often based on their colour, especially for the cats," Richard said. "We had a whole litter of pure grey cats … they've been here since they were kittens … It's very frustrating, and very disappointing.

"Brooks, he's coming up on a year in July, I use him in all of my marketing materials saying 'Here since July,' so that people can see that this beautiful black dog has been here since July, that's too long for any animal to be in shelters."

The Humane Society accepts donations and also encourages people who want to help but can't afford cash donations to volunteer.

People who are able to can also foster animals for short periods of time, anywhere from a few days to several months.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Adel Ahmed