Shelters Are Not Housing

I recently snapped this image in the downtown of a busy Canadian city, and while it wasn’t aimed at the animal welfare community, it resonated with me.

Shelters aren’t homes, for people or animals. We can’t continue to rely on shelter space to house animals taken from distress, there is simply a limit on capacity. So what can we do?

We need to look at the root causes of the issues facing the community, and we need your continued help to allow us to do that.

This year, our organization will be asking some tough questions. Is the legislation we enforce as strong as it could be? Are Alberta towns and counties implementing and enforcing effective animal control by-laws? What can we do to encourage more responsible pet ownership? How can we find more fosters and adopters for animals that come into our care?

I don’t have the answers… yet. But as a community we’re going to work hard to find solutions to ease the unprecedented pressure on us all.

Many Albertans don’t know that while we receive some funding from the Alberta Government, it only covers some of our costs. The rest of the expenses we incur from sheltering animals, helping vulnerable Albertans through our Pet Safekeeping program, promoting Humane Education and other outreach programs are only possible because we have kind donors who support our mission of ensuring all animals are treated humanely.