The Humane Society Hastings Prince Edward is restricting surrenders of pets by their owners after a massive spike in pet surrenders over the last six weeks.
“It’s all hands on deck at HSHPE. The crisis we’ve seen across the country is now here. Surrenders are up and adoptions are down and that is causing an urgent capacity issue,” says Marilyn Lawrie, HSHPE executive director.
The HSHPE has taken in over 260 animals in the past six weeks, which is a dramatic increase over their usual intake rates and is stretching their resources to the limit.
Lawrie says that inflation, lack of affordable housing, and rising vet costs have created a “perfect storm” and that other shelters that would normally take their overflow are also operating at or over their capacity.
The shelter is still accepting strays brought by animal control officers as per their contracts with Belleville, Quinte West, and other municipalities.
The Humane Society Hastings Prince Edward is lowering their adoption fees to $200 for adult dogs and urging people to adopt and they are also putting out a request for animal care volunteers and volunteers to foster animals.
The restrictions on surrendering animals will remain in place until August.
