Caretakers with the Hamilton-Burlington SPCA say recent intake numbers are up and while they’re having trouble pinning down a reason for the increase, they need homes to help house the overflow of animals.
Manager of Education and Sheltering Madison Bodden says the agency is seeking more people to provide temporary foster homes for dogs and cats amid an influx of pets over the last several months.
“In a shelter setting, a lot of our animals start to start to show signs of stress and anxiety, and it’s certainly not their best side when they’re looking to be adopted,” Bodden explained.
“As we start to see our numbers get higher, the space that we can allocate to these animals becomes much smaller.”
The idea is to provide opportunities for animals to decompress from shelter life and learn social skills.
Growing costs, the economy and inflation typically are factors the local SPCA is seeing with the recent intake. Specifically, clinic visits and food are the expenses the agency commonly hears as an issue for owners.
“We’re really working on cross programs, such as our pet food pantry program or wellness clinics, to help address these challenges,” Bodden said. “We’ve seen them become barriers for people to be able to keep their pets in the home.”
The ‘rent a pet’ type program allows residents to keep a foster pet for as long as an individual is able to and the SPCA has no expectations of adoption.
Bodden says research has shown even one day of foster care for a pet, even for a cat, often doesn’t increase stress or decrease social behaviour toward humans but can improve the animal’s behavioural and medical status.
“Especially if they’re recovering from some kind of medical treatment or surgery,” she said.
“Sometimes fostering is kind of the best of both worlds because you don’t have to commit to adopting an animal if you know your schedule in the future is going to be changing a little bit.”
Anyone interested in fostering can reach out to the Hamilton/Burlington SPCA online.