Shelter swamped with pets

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The Calgary Sun

By Nadia Moharib


The city's animal shelter is now inundated with the most cats and dogs it has ever seen at one time.

And Bill Bruce, the city's animal services head honcho, says he's willing to make a deal if it will reunite what are mostly unclaimed pets with their owners.

Claiming a pet can cost several hundred dollars in fines and Bruce suspects that's why some people are reluctant to retrieve their pets.

He said shelter officials are willing to consider reducing the penalties if it will convince people to take their cats or dogs home.

"If you think your dog or cat is in here, call me and we can talk," Bruce said yesterday.

As of Friday, there were 113 cats and dogs in the shelter at 2201 Portland St. S.E.

Bruce said most are tame, trained and well-cared for.


"I was playing with cats which are totally trusting of people and walked up to dogs wagging their tails and happy to see you -- these belong to people," he said.

Bruce said he is shocked by the numbers, but he said he is mystified people are not coming forward to claim their pets.

About half of the animals have permanent identification.

People have 10 days to collect those pets and four days for those without identification before the animal goes up for adoption.

Bruce said he is at a loss to explain the high numbers, but suspects the recent thunderstorm may have sent some frightened animals to the streets and ultimately to the shelter.

He said the number of pets in the city is on the rise with one cat and one dog arriving with every nine new Calgarians.

Animal services will soon be launching the Pet Harbour program which will update its website every 15 minutes with pictures of animals in its shelter waiting to be claimed or up for adoption.