“A big day like this is a big undertaking for our organization,” said co-executive director Erin Deems. “A year ago it would have been a good day, but now it’s causing us a lot of panic. “We’ve been in a state of panic — in terms of shelter capacity — for the last several months.”

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According to Deems, the situation continues to worsen. “Demands for their animals are coming in at an unprecedented rate,” he explained. Story continues below ad “If we continue at this rate, we don’t even have a year. We’re cutting all our funds into these major medical cases and it’s not sustainable.” Additionally, Deems said they don’t have enough foster homes and people aren’t donating like they used to. “Animal welfare across our province right now is a big fight,” Deems said. “We all need to start looking at what we can do to do better for animals.”

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Edmonton’s Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS) shelter is also full. “We’re finding that there just seems to be a real significant increase in intake or requested intake,” said AARCS Edmonton director of operations Leigh McLean. “We get a lot of surrender requests, a lot of emergency requests – communities find a lot of strays, a lot of abandoned animals.” McLean also noted that animals leaving are lower than normal and added that they have reduced adoption fees to make room for new cases. “There’s always an increase in recruitment during the summer, and we tend to find that there’s a little bit of a drop off in terms of advocates and adopters – things like that,” McLean explained. Story continues below ad At Saving Grace, the rescue is currently raising money for its own veterinary clinic, which Deems said will take the pressure off. “(It would) allow us to free up some resources so that when we make those larger imports and when we get those calls, we’re not in a panic mode,” Deems said. Deems hopes things change before it’s too late. “I don’t know how it can get any harder to save than it is now.” © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.