Nine years ago, the City of Winnipeg on average was euthanizing a dog every day, but not anymore.
In 2008, 359 dogs were euthanized because Animal Services was overwhelmed with lost or stray dogs. In 2016, the city put down 28 dogs.
Leland Gordon, Chief Operating Officer for the Animal Services Agency, said over the years social media has played a major role.
“We’re on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube,” Gordan said. “We have people come in and take pictures of our pets weekly and put them online.”
Once a week, Global News Mornings showcases a dog up for adoption.
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He said people see a pup they like and come in and adopt it.
Gordon said it also has a lot to do with more people licencing their dogs. So when a dog goes missing, 311 can quickly reunite the dog with its family so it never has to step a paw into Animal Services.
In 2015, 48, 671 dogs were licensed, that number grew to 54,582 in 2016.
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Gordon said they used to be so overwhelmed with dogs they would have kennels in closets and storage rooms and now he said they have room for more dogs than ever before.
“The days of Animal Services euthanizing a dog, a nice dog with no problems because we’re out of space, are long gone. The dog that could be euthanized by Animal Services are the ones that are too aggressive to safely put out there in the community or one that is terminally ill and needs to be put down,” Gordon said.