When Amanda Lease found out a puppy name Krue was going to be given up for adoption, she knew she had to step in. Two and a half years later, they’re still inseparable.
“He is my partner,” Lease said. “He loses it when I’m gone. It breaks my heart every time I have to leave him.”
But after Lease was evicted from her home — which she says was quickly sold afterward — she faced a difficult choice.
Unable to find affordable, pet-friendly housing, she’s been living in her truck with Krue.
“It’s impossible,” Lease added. “Prices are through the roof. No one wants a pet. The mandatory stipulations they’re asking of tenants are ridiculous.
“Either they ghost me or they’re holding impromptu bidding wars, asking tenants, ‘What’s your budget?’ And whoever has the highest budget gets it.”
And she’s not alone.
Local advocacy groups say they’re seeing an unprecedented number of people looking to give up their pets — mostly dogs — because they can’t find housing.
“In 2022, 68 animals in total… were surrendered for no-pet housing,” Anna-Lee Fitzsimmons from the Calgary Humane Society said.
“(This year) — and we’re only six months through the year — we are so far at 113 animals surrendered. I would anticipate that that number will be well over 200 come December.”
“Yesterday, we took 11 calls and pretty much all started with ‘I’m going to have to surrender,'” Parachutes For Pets executive director Melissa David said. “To put it into context, I was actually getting fuel at the gas station yesterday and a father and his young daughter came up to me with their dog in their hands. They had just newly been unhoused and their dog was sick.
“So we’re getting calls, we’re getting stopped on the street.”
Parachutes For Pets is helping Lease and many others with emergency food and other necessities, helping to keep her afloat even when hope is hard to come by.
“I was down to my last scoop of food,” she said. “I can’t keep a job right now, because I don’t know where I’m going to shower or sleep that night. So trying to keep employment is incredibly difficult, which means buying dog food is impossible. These people have been so amazing and helping us.
“I don’t know what I’m going to come do come fall. I really don’t. I don’t know what everybody else in this city is going to do that’s in the same position as I am, with or without a pet.”
For those in a similar position as Lease, the Calgary Humane Society wants them to know there’s no shame in surrendering an animal.
The group also encourages landlords to take in tenants with pets.
“If you are a landlord and you have concerns about renting to somebody with a pet, we’re always willing to have a conversation and help where we can,” Fitzsimmons added. “Give you some tips and tricks on how to make sure you’re renting to a responsible pet owner, and how you can screen for a responsible pet owner.
“If you have a tenant who has a dog barking or a cat who’s missing the litter box, or something you’re worried about, call us we will help you we will give you that free support.”
David says the city also needs bigger-picture solutions to tackle the rental crisis.
“Putting in better regulations, maybe a rent control or a rent cap,” David said. “Making sure that we’re following regulations when people have support animals, because you shouldn’t be able to discriminate against somebody for that. They should be able to get in and theoretically you can, but nobody’s really monitoring what’s going on out there.”
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