A quick look online tells me something has changed. Today on Kijiji, there are miniature dachshund puppies for sale for $4,500. While that is a high, almost all the puppies for sale are priced at over $2,000. These are not show dogs. Many are not purebred. A quarter of the ads aren’t for puppies and dogs for sale — they are posted by people looking for a dog.
Despite strict public health measures in place across Ontario, animal rehabilitation centres, like the Ottawa Valley Wild Bird Care Centre, have kept their doors open throughout the pandemic. In fact, 2020 was a record-breaking year with more than 4,300 birds from 158 different species being admitted. Typically, winter is the slowest season at the Centre, but 2021 is proving to be even busier with double the intake compared to last year.
As I write this, it’s February 23 — World Spay Day. How are we marking the date? Through service to our community. Today, our staff are sterilizing 44 animals — 36 cats, five dogs and three rabbits in our clinic. The animals aren’t “ours,” they are in the care of six other local rescue groups who are having trouble obtaining surgeries during the pandemic.
On a frigid winter morning, Gerda, a two-year-old cat, was rushed to the OHS in critical condition after being discovered frozen on her finder’s porch.
Gerda’s body temperature and blood sugar were too low to be measured.
In late January, Prescott, Ontario Town Council voted to make cats equal to dogs. The way they have done it is perhaps not the way that you think. You see, council updated the town’s 1994 animal control bylaw and now, owners can be charged $110 if their dog or cat is running at large and owners also could be fined if either species of pet is not licensed or not wearing its tag. The poop-and-scoop law will also apply to cats as well as dogs under the new bylaw. Owners can face a $210 fine if they don’t pick up after their animal on other people’s property or in public spaces.
COVID-19 has impacted the OHS and most shelters in North America. For a variety of pandemic-related reasons, most of us are admitting fewer animals than we did pre-pandemic. But this was becoming a trend in most shelters years before any of us had heard of COVID-19. The question is why. I believe most animal welfare professionals would agree there are multiple reasons, but that the biggest factor is a shift in our relationship with our pets.
I’ve been writing a lot lately about people acquiring pets during the pandemic. While I am still not terribly concerned about some aspects of this phenomenon, I’m increasingly alarmed about the soaring demand for pets and the effects of this demand.
Earlier in the month, I wrote about the increased demand for pets during the health crisis and concerns that the demand is fueling international importation, largely unenforced by government, and is leading to the death and suffering of animals during transport or in their country of origin.
In November, the Ottawa Humane Society (OHS) relaunched its Emergency Partner Support Program, providing financial and other support to 22 partners in the animal welfare community.
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