Regina Humane Society is struggling to keep up with dog intake

The Regina Humane Society (RHS) is facing challenges as the number of dogs in their care continues to increase.

“You have these beautiful animals… and they deserve a home,” RHS spokesperson Bill Thorn told CTV News. ‘They are not here because of their own fault. So I think frustrating is the only word I would use and it feels heavy at times.

The association is seeing a significant increase in the number of dogs in their care, something that adoption council member Jacquelyn Acaster said could cause a variety of problems for the facility.

“If we don’t have room to move animals from back to top at adoption, bottlenecks arise and we worry about maybe another intake freeze, like we had when COVID happened,” she explained. “No one wants to see that, it’s a whole other list of challenges that we don’t want to face at the moment.”

While many dogs are top of mind at the moment, the facility is also seeing a steady rise in the number of cats, which they fear could be the next problem to be addressed.

The reason behind these high intake figures could be several factors, according to RHS officials.

Higher costs of living, a shortage of veterinarians, housing issues and the aftermath of many people adopting pets during the COVID-19 pandemic all play a role in the problem.

“All of these things have combined to create kind of a perfect storm,” Thorn explained. “People cannot keep their animals and in some cases, if they come here as strays, they are not recalled.”

Although the RHS recently moved to their new, larger location in Harbor Landing, the new facility was never intended to house a larger number of animals.

“The current building, the new one, does not contain much more than the other. The idea was not to build a big warehouse for animals. That’s not best practice, so it’s about the same, a little more, but not that much more,” Thorn explained. “Most of the extra space is for things like education or a veterinary clinic, and the public space as we have it now.”

If numbers continue to grow, the RHS may be forced to implement a new intake freeze.

‘We’ve been through a few in my time here. “I’ve tried not to think about it too much because there’s nothing I can do about it, so all we can do is try to make sure we get the animals out as quickly as possible,” Acaster said.

Currently, all dogs staying at the RHS are available for just $25 – in an effort to encourage adoptions.