Large number of pets being surrendered to Guelph Humane Society

Ed. note. Housing and financial situations are some of the reasons people are surrendering their pets to Guelph Humane Society. Incorrect information appeared in an earlier version of this story.  

The Guelph Humane Society is seeing a number of dogs, cats and other animals being brought to the animal shelter.

More than 725 pets have been handed over to the shelter since the start of the year.

Housing and financial situations are just some of the reasons people are surrendering their pets.

“The need to move and not being able to take their pets with them, a lot of that is related to the housing crisis that we are seeing in our community,” said Lisa Veit, executive director of the Guelph Humane Society.

“Additionally, there is the impact of finances and other challenges.”

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Veit said there was a high interest in the adoption of animals during the early parts of the pandemic.

“That has really slowed this year, particularly in the last couple of months,” she said.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of animals coming in, but we are seeing our adoption numbers be not as strong as last year.”

There have been reports that Toronto Animal Services saw a 75 per cent increase in pets being surrendered by their owners compared with the same time period last year.

The organization said in a statement that around 327 cats, 151 dogs, and 231 other animals have been returned to the shelter since the start of the year.

It believes that is mostly due to people returning to work from the pandemic.