Guelph Humane Society hosting 1st in-person adoption event during COVID-19 pandemic

The Guelph Humane Society is hosting the first in-person adoption event in its new facility — the first since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The Home for the Holidays Adoption Event is happening on Friday and Saturday at 190 Hanlon Creek Blvd. The agency has set a goal of adopting out 30 cats and 10 bunnies over those two days.

“Adoptions have been predominantly virtual since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been a very successful process, and we have adopted out over 1,100 animals this way since April 2020,” Marketing and Communications Manager Natalie Thomas said.

“But now that we have settled into our new home and current public health restrictions allow us to have limited capacity in our adoption rooms, we thought the holidays would be a perfect time to get people back inside the building, and interacting with animals that are looking for their new families.”

Anyone interested in coming into the shelter and adopting an animal must register online for an appointment. Interested adopters will have 20 minutes with the animals.

As of Tuesday morning, spots were still available for Friday afternoon and evening, along with a few spots on Saturday.

“We are allowing three families into the adoption rooms at a time, and each family is limited to two people. So you just need to book one space, and that gets you and a second person in with you,” Thomas said.

Families will be able to see some cats, kittens and bunnies that have not yet been made available online.

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Most animals are ready to go home on Friday or Saturday except for a few kittens and bunnies that are still waiting on their spay or neuter surgeries.

Thomas said families can still go through the adoption process but it’ll be a week or two before they can go home.

“We have had a record number of bunnies come into our care this year,” she said.

“We have taken in nearly three times the amount of domestic bunnies that we normally see, and we really hope that if you’re looking to add a bunny to your family that you adopt from your local shelter. Because this is a widespread problem not only here in Ontario, but across Canada and the United States.”