Focused for years on bringing abandoned animals into its care, the Humane Society of Kitchener Waterloo & Stratford Perth is adopting a new approach, moving forward instead with alternative solutions aimed at keeping more pets in their homes.
Focused for years on bringing abandoned animals into its care, the Humane Society of Kitchener Waterloo & Stratford Perth is adopting a new approach, moving forward instead with alternative solutions aimed at keeping more pets in their homes.
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“We began as a society to support pets in times of crisis and have evolved to supporting both pets and their family members,” said Kathrin Delutis, the local humane society’s chief executive. “If there’s an opportunity particularly through surrenders to keep animals in their homes rather than coming into the centre, we want to (take) that.”
The shift in focus is at the heart of the humane society’s new strategic plan, a document unveiled publicly on Wednesday after it was approved by the not-for-profit organization’s board of directors in November. The goals in the plan include a greater effort to bring services such as wellness checks and microchip and vaccine clinics, among others, directly to neighborhoods in Perth and Waterloo counties.
Delutis described it as “community veterinary outreach.”
“Our services have always been provided within our four walls,” she said. “We’re looking at ways to be out into our communities … rather than expecting people to come to us because not everyone has access to get here.”
The humane society is also considering the creation of a regional animal welfare education hub that will offer staff, volunteers and other partners virtual and in-person opportunities to share best practices.
“Animal shelters are no longer just a place to adopt a pet, but community animal centers that support people and pets from a much wider and deeper perspective,” said board president Jacqueline Watty. “We … look forward to all of the ways we can advance animal welfare in our communities.”
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The ideas the humane society is exploring have recently become more prominent among animal welfare organizations south of the border. In response to the pandemic, American Pets Alive! – an organization traditionally focused on helping US animal shelters end the euthanasia of treatable pets – launched a group called Human Animal Support Servicesa large-scale effort to support community-based animal services while access to shelters is severely limited.
Ontario doesn’t have the same number of stray and abandoned animals as the US, Delutis said, but there are many people in the region feeling the impacts of the pandemic and struggling to provide pets with all the necessities they need.
“That doesn’t mean they’re not great pet owners and that doesn’t mean that pet isn’t bringing them some significant value,” she said. “We know now through research and through experience in the US that it’s so much better for the animal and the human to be able to continue to build that bond and stay together.
“That’s really what is driving this, the positive results that we’ve seen through the US and even our own experience here in the region.”
The Humane Society of Kitchener Waterloo & Stratford Perth was created through a merger in 2012. Its Stratford location, which includes an animal hospital that performed more than 2,000 surgeries in 2020, opened at its current location on Griffith road in 2016.
About 500 domestic animals are cared for at the Stratford location each year before they’re adopted.