Animal shelters need to change or risk becoming obsolete, panel tells Ottawa audience
Animal shelters should transform from adoption centres to community hubs if they want to avoid becoming obsolete, a panel of experts told an Ottawa animal welfare conference Sunday.
The "What If We Are Not Sheltering Animals Anymore?" discussion at the conference hosted by the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (CFHS) focused on the fact that shelters aren't taking in as many animals as they once did.
Geoff Urton with the B.C. SPCA said that's partially because, in general, shelters are doing such a good job of encouraging people to spay and neuter their pets.
"We've really seen the numbers of dogs in particular coming in to our shelters decline, and on the horizon I even think we're going to see cat numbers decline — which means those animals are where they should be, in homes," Urton said after the panel.
"The next challenge for our movement is to redefine ourselves."
Urton said shelters should try to become more like a community centre for people with pets, where they could get food, take a training class and meet other pet lovers.
Urton said the B.C. SPCA designed a new facility in Nanaimo, B.C., to be more community-friendly and have the same concepts in mind as they work to replace their Vancouver building, which was built in the 1950s.
"If we don't change, the predictable future is that we become irrelevant," Urton said.
"If we operate these enormous animal shelters that are empty because we've done such a good job at encouraging the community to spay and neuter their pets, then what's the point in anyone ever coming down to an animal shelter?"
Other panelists brought up the need for a more proactive approach to managing animal overpopulation — for instance, getting shelter employees running more community programs, or having more animals microchipped —than simply putting them in shelters, which increasingly are home to animals with behavioural or medical problems who are harder to adopt.
A more proactive approach was promoted by the CFHS in a December 2016 report that said it helps cut down on the number of homeless cats and dogs.
'Inspiring'
The executive director of the Outaouais SPCA in west Quebec was also at the panel, and she told CBC News afterwards that she was inspired by what she heard.
"The people who were speaking really related to the challenges that we go through at the Outoauais SPCA, especially having less dogs coming into the shelters in the past few years," said France Dubois.
"How we [can] shelter with less animals, it's really interesting."
