The Okanagan Humane Society (OHS) is finding themselves stretched with both rescue and pet assistance, far beyond what they have ever experienced in 28 years. Foster homes and funding are critical to face their biggest year yet of helping local animals throughout the Okanagan and Shuswap.
“We have been inundated with animals, especially the past 2 months with an exploding population of cats, kittens, dogs and pups like we have never seen before,” says Romany Runnalls, President, Okanagan Humane Society (OHS). “This a perfect storm that has been brewing for 3 years – post COVID with people taking on animals for companionship then faced with a soaring and crushing inflationary rise in the cost of living. A very large portion of our population is finding they absolutely cannot afford veterinary costs on top of their basic living expenses.”
Currently, OHS has 300 animals in care and 195 of them are kittens.
In May alone, there were 165 requests for help. One request does not mean one animal and could be many. Four of the requests in May included one with 24 animals, one with 29 animals, one with 38 animals and one with 55 animals at the property – many of them pregnant, so the numbers continue to grow. This influx of more than 150 animals has filled up foster homes and stretched funding.
“We operate a foster based model to keep our costs down, directing at least 95% of every donation to basic medical care including spay and neuter services, vaccine, deworm and identification,” mentions Runnalls. “We can help more animals directly and immediately, our only limitation to saving more lives is funding and foster homes.”
Since January 1st, the charity has had 1451 requests for help with rescuing animals from outside and for spay/neuter and medical costs. This is nearly 8 requests per day, and each request can have anywhere between 1 – 50+ animals on one request.
Runnalls says that the solution is to spay and neuter as many animals as possible, both those that are pets or living in our communities in colonies, both urban and rural.
“Our mission since inception has been around controlling the pet population and we continue to be committed to this work, however the number of low-income spay/neuter requests and rescues of community animals that need to be sterilized has grown substantially over the past few years,” says Runnalls.
Further to OHS seeing an increase in requests for both low-income spay/neuter and rescues, recently, the Vernon BC SPCA closed its doors, the Kelowna BC SPCA is limiting intakes due to a panleukopenia outbreak 2 months ago, and three smaller local rescues have ceased operations, putting more pressure on the Humane Society as the requests pour in.
“We have many great veterinary partners in the Okanagan Valley,but we need to call on veterinarians throughout the valley to play their crucial part in tackling the looming pet overpopulation crisis by offering lower prices to the public for basic spay/neuter/vaccine/deworm/microchip pricing,” says Runnalls.
The average cost of care for an animal at OHS is approximately $300. With the influx of animals from these cases alone, the charity is looking at costs of more than $50,000 per month, with more animals being rescued every single day.
OHS serves a region spanning from Osoyoos to the Shuswap. Calls are increasing in the North Okanagan since the local shelter closed with the calls at: 39% Central Okanagan, 32% North Okanagan, 15% Okanagan-Similkameen, 12% Columbia Shuswap, 2% other.
Last year, OHS helped more than 2500 animals. At only halfway through the year, they have already exceeded that number and are on track to reach 4000+.
“We rely almost entirely on donations from the community and a handful of small but critically important grants, plus volunteer support, and our extensive veterinary partnerships to carry out our mission of rescue, spay, neuter, medical and adoptions,” says Runnalls.
Runnalls is urging those that can donate or provide a loving foster home to go to their website at: www.okanaganhumanesociety.com
OHS has four main programs including the Rescue Program, Pet Assistance program for spay/neuter accessibility to low-income families, Adoption Program and a Farm Cat Adoption Program.
To learn more about OHS, go to www.okanaganhumanesociety.com or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
