A new pet adoption centre has opened its doors. Powell River and District Branch SPCA opened its new Animal Adoption Centre to the public on Tuesday, March 19 at 7558 Duncan Street. The 2,000-square-foot facility, which holds about 20 animals, is open five days a week, noon to 5 pm Tuesdays through Saturdays.
“It’ll be great to have a larger community presence,” said branch manager Brandy Craig. The facility will allow the local group to care for over 600 animals per year.
Currently, Powell River SPCA coordinates the adoption of animals, rehabilitation, fostering programs for pets, emergency care and subsidized spay and neutering for pets of low income owners.
For more than 30 years these services were organized by volunteers without a central office to work from. Audrey Hill volunteered as the branch manager for the past 19 years.
“Audrey would take all the calls for adoptions,” said Craig, who worked previously as Powell River SPCA’s animal cruelty investigator. “Everyone was working out of their kitchens and living rooms. They’ve done an amazing job running the volunteer shelter this way for years.”
Hill moved to Powell River in the early 1990s after spending more than a decade as the volunteer branch manager for Nanaimo SPCA. She arrived in Powell River with the idea that it would be possible to run pet adoptions without a building.
“The idea to build a shelter in Powell River has always been there,” said Hill, “and we have done fundraising for it over the years.”
She made a deal with the volunteers that she would support the idea of a shelter when the community had its animal population under control.
The SPCA’s mandate is to intervene in cases of animal neglect and cruelty. While it does not pick up stray animals, it does accept any animal that is ownerless, in need of help, or has been surrendered.
Hill said that while she was heading up Nanaimo SPCA in the late 1980s, its shelter was receiving approximately 2,200 animals per year and more than half of the 1,200 cats it received were being euthanized.
“I didn’t want to put someone through that,” said Hill, now a member of the SPCA Community Council. “It was extremely stressful.”
The facility was built with money raised by the local group and will operate with combined funding from Powell River Regional District and the City of Powell River. Its annual operating budget is approximately $150,000.
The new adoption centre will not only allow the organization to centralize its operations and increase its numbers of adoptions, but it will also add capacity to its current network of foster homes.
“I’m not happy that we’ve had to have some animals living on the streets when we’ve run out of foster homes,” said Hill. “It’ll be good from that point of view.”
At any given time, there may be two dozen animals in foster homes, according to Craig.
The shelter has room for six friendly, compatible adult dogs, eight to 10 adult cats and room for puppies and kittens. All kennels have access to an outdoor play area, and plans are in the works to build an animal play area at the back of the centre.
Craig doesn’t expect the shelter will be overrun by unwanted animals because of the success the organization has had promoting pet owners to spay or neuter their pets over the years.
Craig said that dogs don’t usually spend more than a couple of weeks in foster care before they are adopted out, and there is more demand for smaller dogs than larger ones.
Even though there is a steady flow of animals going up for adoption, Craig said the organization will try not to run at full capacity because it finds the animals are healthier and are adopted faster when there are fewer in the centre. Sick animals are kept in the isolation room to prevent the spread of disease throughout the facility.
“Our goal is to adopt the animal out,” she said. “If you bring an aggressive dog in that no one is able to handle, its life is not going to be good in the shelter.”
When dogs are brought in, they go through temperament assessments and owners are asked about the dog’s history. Owners are asked to pay a surrendering fee to pay for food and care of the animal.
Trained staff work with dogs that have anxiety issues and usually they go to foster homes with experienced “dog people,” said Craig. All dogs and cats that are brought into the adoption centre are neutered or spayed, dewormed and treated for fleas.
Each BC SPCA branch adds profiles of its animals to an online database which allows potential adoptive families to search for suitable pets by looking at pictures and reading write-ups. Pets up for adoption aren’t limited to dogs and cats, but run the gamut from rodents to reptiles.
Hill explained that for families with young children, adopting an adult dog is often the better way to go because, “the personality already shows,” and adopting a puppy requires a lot of attention and care. “I often hear people say that they don’t want an animal with any baggage,” said Hill. “It’s really such a shame.”
Sometimes the only reason pets are brought to the SPCA is because the owner can not take it with them when they move, or they do not have enough time to take care of the pet, she added.
SPCA adoptions are made through a matching basis for both the animal and the family. “Just because you come in and say you want a particular dog doesn’t mean you’re necessarily going to get the dog if it’s not suitable for your family,” said Craig. “We match the best pet to the best home.”
For more information about adopting a pet, readers can contact the Powell River and District Branch SPCA by telephone at 604.485.9252 or online. The official opening of the adoption centre is planned for May.
