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Updated: Dec 3, 2021
Pet adoptions fall at local animal shelters following end of lockdown
Animal shelters in the Lower Mainland are struggling to find homes for pets after the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The animals that are the least likely to be adopted are rabbits, large breed dogs, senior animals and animals with health issues.
Sarah Hylton-Foster, supervisor at the Coquitlam Animal Shelter, said “people were looking to adopt cats, kittens and puppies and every shelter had that brace yourself moment when people went back to work.”
Since then, “most shelters these days are just overflowing, especially with rabbits. We’re starting to see a lot of surrender and stray rabbits coming into this shelter,” she said.
“A lot of people don’t realize how much work rabbits are (and) size of enclosures are really important to us because a lot of people just buy those pet store cages, which aren’t in any way shape or form big enough (or suitable),” she said.
With people returning to work, more animals are being surrendered or abandoned. Recently, one kitten at the Surrey Animal Resource Centre, was found abandoned on the side of the road near a ditch.
“It’s a family member and not just something you can dispose of when you’re busy,” said Hylton-Foster.
At the start of the pandemic, shelters experienced a rise in adoption because people were at home more. However, when workplaces opened up again and vaccinations rose, people began to go back to their busy pre-pandemic lives.
“When COVID-19 first hit, animals were flying out the door,” said Shelley Joaquin, manager at the Surrey Animal Resource Centre.
“Adoptions have slowed and the animal intake has increased, so our ability to intake animals right now is greatly reduced,” she said.
“Rabbits definitely have the longest length of stay at the shelter,” said Joaquin.
Dianne Stebner, manager of the Coquitlam, B.C. SPCA, said the pandemic helped animals find a home but now this shelter is also experiencing a drop in adoptions.
“I think (the pandemic has) helped in that it allowed people to open their hearts and homes to animals in need. We’ve definitely seen an increase in adoption throughout the pandemic, (but) it's tapered off in the last couple of months,” she said.
“Rabbits definitely have the longest length of stay at the shelter" - Shelley Joaquin.
An SPCA Worker's Perspective on Cat Adoptions During the Pandemic
Listen to my Q & A with Emily Garlow who is the Assistant Manager at the Richmond BCSPCA. This shelter predominantly cares for cats and kittens due to space issues and looks after them until they are adopted.
“It’s a family member and not just something you can dispose of when you’re busy" - Sarah Hylton-Foster.
With more homeless animals, shelters like the Surrey Animal Resource Centre are struggling to take care of them all. “We are incredibly short staffed,” said Joaquin.
“We had to eliminate our volunteer program completely because the space in our rooms just don’t accommodate having multiple people in them. Probably until next year we won’t have volunteers and we haven’t had volunteers in the shelter since the beginning of the pandemic,” she said.
As the trend to adopt declined, people realized that taking care of an animal was a lot of work and can be quite expensive.
Emily Garlow, the assistant manager at the Richmond, B.C. SPCA, recommends people wait before adopting a pet to see if it is the right fit for them.
“You want to do some volunteering beforehand just to see what it takes to look after an animal or maybe foster an animal to see if it is something that you would be able to do. I think a lot of the time people don’t know what they are getting into and the more education the better,” she said.
Joaquin says pet owners who realize it is not for them should try different avenues before surrendering their pet to a shelter or abandoning it on the side of the road.
Work with trainers or behaviourists before giving them up and “surrendering them to a shelter because we get so full and our waitlists get so long,” Joaquin said.
“I think for animal welfare everywhere it would be really nice if people put the time and research in before (adopting), just like you would if you were going to buy a car,” she said.
To learn more about the shelters and the animals available at the Surrey Animal Resource Centre and the Coquitlam Animal Shelter, visit https://www.surrey.ca/services-payments/animals/surrey-animal-resource-centre or https://coquitlam.ca/482/Animals-for-Adoption.
For information regarding the B.C. SPCA visit,
Animal Shelters in the Lower Mainland
These are a few of the animal shelters in the Lower Mainland. The staff at these shelters look after the animals until they find them the right home.
The Surrey Animal Resource Centre take in more animals during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected animal shelters across the Lower Mainland, including the Surrey Animal Resource Centre. Shelley Joaquin, the manager at this adoption centre, shares how adoption grew at the start of the pandemic but began to lessen after the second wave hit.
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