Shelter dogs, cats waiting longer to find forever homes

If you've been thinking of adopting a pet, the Thunder Bay and District Humane Society would love to hear from you.

This year, in addition to the usual summer influx of puppies and kittens, the society is also seeing an unusually high number of adult dogs in care, said executive director Shawna Beaulieu.

At this time last year the humane society had nine dogs in its care, Beaulieu said. As of Friday, it was caring for 20 — making the shelter a much busier place.

"Well, there's a huge adjustment going from nine dogs to 20 dogs, although we have a really great animal care team on site and some really awesome volunteers. It does increase our need for more staffing, which is costly, and also our need for more volunteers, especially when it comes to just day-to-day activity, laundry, washing dishes, walking dogs," she said, adding that they've also expanded into kennel areas that aren't normally used for dogs awaiting adoption.

While some shelters have reported an influx of so-called 'pandemic puppies,' Beaulieu said that's not the trend being observed at her organization.

Instead, while the number of animals coming into care is on par with previous years, the interest in adoption is not. 

"We are getting fewer applications," Beaulieu said. "Last year, if we're looking in comparison, an adult dog on average would spend about six days in shelter before they were adopted."

"Now, an average length of stay for a dog has been up to 44 days."

Cats, too, are affected, and the humane society is seeing similar trends when it comes to length of stay, she said, especially for animals with special needs.

Beaulieu said while it's hard to say why applications are down, several factors may be at play, including the pandemic recovery.

"I think it would be safe to assume with people out and traveling and socializing a lot more, [after] being isolated for two years, likely people don't want to be at home stuck taking on a new pet and restricting them from doing some vacation," she said, adding that once people settle into fall routines, she hopes adoptions will pick up.

Another factor, she said, might be the ongoing veterinary shortage. 

"You know, there's a veterinary shortage in all of North America, but in Thunder Bay, we are quite hard-hit. We just don't have the amount of veterinarians that we need in order to support the amount of animals in our community. And that's due to the overpopulation of animals that we have," she said.

She said that's also one reason the humane society has put a focus on it's spay and neuter clinic.

Dr. Tim Arthur, a veterinarian and vice-president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, said a slowdown in adoptions is helpful for overworked vets.

"With our current manpower shortage, the less people getting new pets, the more time we have to look after the people that already have those pets," he said.

Arthur said the number of puppy and kitten adoptions during the pandemic has led to very high demand for veterinary services across Canada.

"I would say that we're probably a good year to two years away from it getting better," he said. "[The] situation right now is too much demand, people looking for veterinary services, too little supply ... of veterinarians that can actually provide those services."

"The combination of those two things is leading to difficulties for the people that own the animals that can't get veterinary care," Arthur said. "They're obviously stressed and worried."

Arthur said there hasn't been enough growth in the number of people studying to become veterinarians in Canada; over the last 10 years, the number of veterinary school graduates has been "staying kind of stable."

More veterinary schools, or more spaces in existing schools, would help, he said — some schools have been doing just that over the last few months — although even if new spaces were created today, it still takes four years to complete the program.

There's also been a push to recruit graduates of veterinary schools in other countries to work in Canada, which has also helped.

Still, Arthur said, veterinarians can't keep up with the demand.

"You can have a government go out and say 'we're going to open a new veterinary school,'" he said. "That doesn't happen tomorrow. It takes time to get things built, and that's why in the profession, we aren't looking at this as 'we need to survive another six months and we're good.'"

"This is a longer-term problem," Arthur said. "We'll gradually get a hold of it, but it is going to take a little bit of time."