Halifax Humane Society in need of foster families as shelter stretched beyond capacity
Capacity at Halifax Humane Society is 350 cats and dogs but they are way beyond that, caring for at least 410 animals right now.
Every nook and cranny of the shelter is filled with cats and dogs. Animal surrenders are up 17% this month, adoptions down 10 percent. On top of that, shelter staffing levels are way down, so there's a delay in getting the animals spayed and neutered which must be done by state law.
"We're trying to hire as fast as we can but until we have staff to help us do those procedures we can't get the animals ready for adoption," spokesman Barry Kukes said.
What they need are foster families to care for animals while the dogs and cats await those medical procedures and become adoption eligible. Ideally, fosters would take an animal for two weeks, maybe a little longer if they are willing so to that end, the shelter is launching a new campaign, searching for "fosternauts."
"We're out of space so we're kind of playing on outer space, and asking people to step up and become a fosternaut," Kukes said.
Volunteers have stepped up to help but shelter officials say there's a limit to what they can do.
"We need actual staff that's trained on how to clean, how to take care of the animals how to move them around how to get them into spay neutering and so on," Kukes said.
There are animals here ready for adoption but the more immediate need is for foster families so they can get some space back.