Number of animals in Kingston Humane Society care remains high, but decreasing

For the first time in nearly two years, the Kingston Humane Society is seeing some form of reprieve from the high volume of animals brought into their care.

This week, the number of animals in care at the Kingston, Ont., shelter dropped below 230 for the first time since 2021.

“We actually got up last year in October to 324 animals on Oct. 5,” said Kingston Humane Society Executive Director Gord Hunter.

For two years running, the number of animals in the care of the Kingston Humane Society hasn’t dropped below 230 until this month.

“We started to see a drop in the beginning of December and now, as of yesterday, 212 animals,” said Hunter.

Both he and and the humane society’s foster care co-ordinator said a big part of the success comes down to dedicated staff, but those efforts haven’t come without a cost.

“Our staff they do a great job here. I don’t know how they do it. The stress, the burnout rate is tremendous, with the amount of behaviour cases with dogs, the medical cases that we have to go through,” said Foster Care Co-ordinator Carlie Couture.

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With an on-site capacity limit of 144 animals, Couture said individuals fostering animals until they can be adopted has also played a huge role in the humane society’s handling of the high numbers.

“That’s the thing, if we only had it on-site then we would have to close intakes because we just have no space,” she added.

Even with a small army of up to 150 individuals fostering animals for the humane society, hunter says more help is always welcome.

“Especially at this time of year. A lot of fosters are gone away on Christmas holiday. We have a lot of students that foster for us and they obviously head home probably in the next week or so,” said Hunter.

This leads to animals returning to the shelter if even only for a few weeks.

To try and deal with that, the Kingston Humane Society is running its Homes for the Holidays campaign.

Hunter said even if a person commits to fostering animal for only a few weeks, it makes a difference.

“We’re still paying for all their food, all their medications,” he added.

Despite the ongoing challenges, the positive news of reducing numbers of animals in care has also been enhanced, with just over 200 animals adopted between Oct. 1 and Dec. 1.