Edmonton’s Animal Care and Control Centre is temporarily pausing the intake of healthy pets and only accepting animals that are in distress, injured or sick due to a shortage of staff because of illness.
The City of Edmonton facility announced on Saturday animal care and medical staff will focus on looking after the animals already at the centre, as well as ones brought in by City of Edmonton animal control peace officers or police.
The facility in north Edmonton will accept, by appointment, animals that are in medical distress, injured or sick. Anyone who finds an animal experiencing these conditions is asked to first call 311 for further instructions, ACCC said.
In an emailed response to Global News, a city spokesperson said:
“Animal Care and Control Centre‘s top priority is to protect the health and well-being of the animals we have in our care.
“ACCC is staffed by a small group of highly trained veterinary staff. This group of staff cannot easily be replaced. In the past few days, three people were unable to work due to illness. One is not COVID-related and the other two are awaiting COVID test results.
“Our first priority is to ensure we can continue to care for the animals currently in the facility as well as any that are injured, sick or in distress or who are brought in by officers under the APA. This resulted in us needing to temporarily pause the acceptance of healthy stray animals.
“We’ve started training employees from other business operations in other care roles so they can backfill critical care functions. We will do our best to communicate in a timely fashion. We do not currently have a timeline for when the suspended services will be reinstated,” the city spokesperson said.
Edmonton residents who find lost animals are encouraged to attempt to find the owner of any healthy, lost or stray animal. If the animal has a tag with a licence number on it, they can call 311 for owner information.
“As we are in a prolonged cold snap, if you are able to care for the animal until such time as you can reunite it with its owner, that would be appreciated.”
The ACCC made a similar change in March 2020, which continued until May 25, 2020, the city spokesperson said. “At that time, the intake of healthy stray dogs resumed while cat intake was limited to priority intake only up until June 15, 2020. At that time, the intake of healthy feral cats was limited to priority intake only.
“Full services resumed in August 2021, when feral cat programs, and in-person pet licensing was restarted.”
The ACCC closure to healthy animals is putting strain on local rescue organizations that say they are already full.
Zoe’s Animal Rescue Society is a shelterless group in Edmonton, that relies on volunteers to house the pets they take in.
Executive director Kath Oltsher says the different rescues talk to each other and all are struggling to keep up with demand.
There’s always a need to house stray and abandoned cats, she said, but now is the time when disillusioned and overwhelmed first-time canine owners throw up their hands in defeat as well.
“Dogs are a little bit tough too right now, especially because with the pandemic, puppies are being sent to rescue now because so many people got so many puppies a year ago.”
Oltsher said the situation with cats is even worse. Usually, the rescue tries to only have 100 or fewer cats in its care, but as of Monday she said they had around 180.
“In and around the city of Edmonton, cats are our big focus right now just because dogs are generally easier to find their home — whereas cats are sort of the background of the city.”
As much as the organization is worried about the animals it looks after, Oltsher said the well-being of its volunteers is also a big concern.
“Mental health issues are something that we all have to look at all the time and especially in the pandemic.
“One of the things about rescue is that if you don’t have safe limits for yourself and for your volunteers, you’re going to end up in situations where the animals aren’t being helped and neither are you. You’re going to end up with too many animals.”
Oltsher said the last two spaces in her own home have just been occupied by two street cats. She won’t take in any more animals, and won’t ask her volunteers to take on more than they are capable of either.
“It is work to take care of an animal, and we also really want to stress taking care of yourself right as a human being.”
She said telling her volunteers they can’t accept any more rescues is tough.
“We’re often alone and it makes you feel like you’re doing something important when you help an animal. So we’re always looking for foster homes, but we would like new ones rather than trying to cram a couple more into the ones we have.”
Vanessa Freeman is with Community Cats Edmonton, which helps take in and care for stray, feral and unowned cats in the city. The organization looks after the animals, spays and neuters them and helps get them ready for adoption.
The rescue typically cares for 75 to 100 cats at any given time. While Freeman said it currently has fewer than 75 cats in its care, calls for animal intake have increased just in the last three to four days.
“Most rescues right now are closed for intakes or at capacity,” she said. “The recent news of Animal Care and Control shutting down and not taking any healthy animals has placed a larger amount of pressure on rescues to step up and help.
“Rescues are trying to take on more and more.”
She said the situation is especially concerning right now, as the city goes through a brutal cold snap.
“Any animal found outside right now would be considered in distress,” Freeman said. “As a rescue, we can only do so much. We can continue to try to help where we can, take in animals where we can but a lot of rescues are at capacity.”
Animal Care & Control Centre requested pet owners make an appointment by calling 311 before coming to the centre to claim their lost pet.
Owners must show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or negative test result in order to enter the building. If they can’t, they’re asked to arrange to have someone else conduct the release/intake on their behalf.
Those other people will also still be required to provide proof of full vaccination or a negative test result.
The city did not say how long the new procedures would be in place or exactly why the changes were implemented.
However on its website, the city said several in-person services, including at Animal Care and Control, have been reduced “to protect everyone’s health and safety.”