91原创 Animal Protection Society (LAPS) is full to the brim with 106 animals in care.
There are 26 dogs and 27 cats in the shelter, while the rest in care are in foster homes, plus some cats at the Abbotsford Petsmart and puppies at the Fraser Valley Institute in the Dog House program, said executive director Sarah Jones.
"We can't have [puppies] here because they need more than we can give, with the amounts of animals we have in care, so we're lucky to have that flexibility. But the puppies don't even have adoptions pending," Jones added.
The issue LAPS is seeing most often is breeders breeding too much when there are no adopters or buyers, leaving he breeder with the responsibility of caring for a litter of five to seven puppies for months and the lack of time space to do so.
"There has been a significant drop [in adoptions]," she said.
Jones acknowledged that's common in the summer time when people are on vacations and adoptions tend to pick up in September, but shelters 鈥� including LAPS 鈥� are overwhelmed with animals coming in everyday.
"We get four or five phone calls every day from people needing to surrender... and, right now, we can only take in the serious cases."
The comfortable number of animals LAPS would ideally have in the shelter is 16 dogs and 30 cats.
"There's so many dogs," Jones commented.
She would like to see breeders breeding less or not at all because the market for pet owners is low, unlike what occurred during pandemic lockdowns.
"They're breeding thinking they'll make money and they're not, so they end up being stuck with these animals; and they get stuck because shelters are overwhelmed," Jones said.
"Please just stop breeding."
In an attempt to ease the overpopulated kennels, the local animal shelter is offering a 50 per cent off discount on adoption fees for the month of August.
"And if you can't adopt, there are other ways you can help out. Share our posts, donate supplies or funds, or foster an animal 鈥� we could use cat fosters right now," Jones pleaded.
Those interested can learn more at .
