You can find a current listing of all adoptable pets at the shelter's Petfinder site. The need for homes is especially acute for rabbits, who take up a lot of the shelter’s resources. If you’re in a position to do so and you’re looking for a pet, then don’t look to breeders or to buy-and-sell sites like Craigslist or Kijiji – adopt instead. So what can you do to help? Here's how you can help the New Westminster animal shelter Adopt an animal from the shelter “Cat adoptions haven’t been too bad, but we are seeing a lot of kittens,” Fox said, noting it’s been working with a number of cat owners who’ve found themselves overwhelmed with “accidental litters” to ensure adult cats are spayed or neutered. Non-spayed/non-neutered pets have also caused a boom in the cat population, as the shelter is now looking for homes for 10 cats (four of which are in foster care). Most of those were strays or abandoned rabbits that hadn’t been spayed or neutered.

It has four guinea pigs in search of homes, as well as a whopping 13 rabbits, six of which are in foster care - and four of those are expected back any day now. “They just don’t get adopted quickly,” Fox said, noting the shelter has a pair of rabbits, Cedric and Cecilia, who’ve been there for a couple of years.

Of particular concern to the local shelter are the hard-to-house small animals: rabbits and guinea pigs. Over that time, she said, many people looking to rehome pets were able to do so without relying on the shelter system - but now, fewer folks are at home to look after pets, and fewer homes seem to be available. We are seeing it in a lot of the Lower Mainland shelters.”įox said shelters are seeing some fallout from the earlier part of the pandemic, when more people were home and more people decided to get pets. “It is a problem that, sadly, is not just ours. “The number of animals coming in is just greater than the number of animals going out, and certainly the pace is faster,” she said. Plus, it has a growing waitlist from people who’ve asked to surrender their animals and who are just waiting for space: 12 cats, 11 dogs, one bird, and 10 rabbits and guinea pigs. The Queensborough-based shelter currently has 34 animals in its care - which, as animal services officer Margie Fox notes, is a very large number for a small city.

The New Westminster animal shelter is overrun with furry friends in need of homes - and it’s hoping you can help.

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