Animal shelters, rescues sound alarm about 'historic' foster care shortage

One hot July afternoon, akind stranger in Plantagenet, Ont.,found three-year old stray cat Mishkaand dropped her off at the Ottawa Humane Society (OHS).

Since then, Mishka has spent most of her time "cowering" in the back of her crate, said OHS communications manager Stephen Smith.

Mishka is oneof more than 40 animals at the shelter waiting for a foster home, said Smith asituation OHS has described as "historic," and one that's affecting other animal rescue agencies, too.

"We are slowly entering the new normal of leaving COVID," said Smith. "And perhaps people are saying they don't want to be home as often, they can't imagine having a foster animal at their house."

It's critical to place animalsinto foster homes, Smith said,as the shelter environment is stressful for many animals and can worsenbehavioural issues.

Other animalsneed devotedcare in a home environment to recover from trauma, injuriesor life-saving surgeries, he said. Getting animals intofoster homes also frees up spaceat the shelter to care for animals in urgent situations, Smithadded.

Wait times longer than usual

Normally, it takes no longer than three to five days to find a foster home, even during the summer "lull," Smith said.

But this summer, things are different with some animals like Mishka waiting for a human companion for more than a month, with no takers.

The new normal has also meant an unusually high number of pets being surrendered by their owners, according to David Harding,founder of Freedom Dog Rescue.

With people returning to work and travellingagain, many owners feelunable to care for their pets, Harding said.

Harding said Freedom Dog Rescue is receiving approximately 10 requests a dayfrom owners looking to surrender their dogs, significantly more than their 25 volunteer foster homes can handle.

The shortage of foster homes means the organization canonlyhelp about 10 per cent of the dogs they receive surrender requests for, Harding said.Freedom Dog Rescue is nowin "desperate need" of foster homes, according to one of theirrecent social media callouts for volunteers.

Shelters beyond capacity

At the Rocky Road Rescue,manager Jennifer Shearersaid they'vereceived many requests for help findingfoster homesfrom animal shelters across Ontario that are "over full."

One request, Shearer said, was for an eight-year-old Husky-mix named Stanley.Severely underweight with skin and eye infections, Stanley was believed to be a "palliative case" by the shelter making the request, Shearer said.

Since no foster care volunteers had stepped up, a Rocky Road Rescue worker took him in, Shearer said.

"We didn't think he deserved to die alone in a shelter," she said.

Since then, Stanley has been"taking treats, being chatty and his tail is up and wagging," according to Shearer.

"A foster home is essentially like the wall that stands between a dog living and dying," she said. "If we don't have fosters, we can't save animals."