The Kingston Humane Society is in dire straights and looking to the public for help.
“It’s a tsunami of things that have coalesced to create a situation,” said Gord Hunter, the Kingston Humane Society’s Executive Director.
Hunter says the animal shelter has been overcapacity for more than a year and he can’t remember a time when the number of animals under its care has been higher.
“Our capacity is 144 animals and we’ve had no less than 230 animals in care,” said Hunter referring to the past year. “Today, when I ran our numbers we’re at 266 animals — 122 animals over our capacity.”
Another factor increasing the Humane Society’s cost is inflation.
“If I look at our numbers from 2019 compared to 2023 our expenses have gone up by $200k, just for animal care,” said Hunter.
Many animals are under the care of the Humane Society longer than they used to be.
“Four years ago, our number of animal care days was about 50k animal care days,” said Hunter. “Right now, we’re at about 84,000 animal care days. We’ve gone up by 34,000 days and each animal per day is $12.”
Hunter says both he and staff are thankful for every donation that comes through their doors but it hasn’t kept up with the dramatic increase in costs the Humane Society is facing and he’s hoping area residents can help just a little bit more.
“We’re saturating our community with events trying to raise money, but at some point, we just have to reach out and say we need your help, can you donate $10, $25, $50 to help us out.”
Around 70% of the Kingston Humane Society’s funding comes from public donations.
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