Calgary-based shelters say that the lifting of pandemic restrictions, coupled with the housing crisis, has contributed to ongoing high capacity. While the same patterns of pet-parenting persist, new trends show a drop in owners reclaiming their lost companions. 

The City of Calgary’s Coordinator of Animal Care and Clinic Services, Kathleen Dickson, said that between 2018 and 2021, the return-to-owner rate for cats and dogs was just over 50 per cent. Last year, she said that the rate decreased to 38 per cent. 

For decades, the Animal Services Centre (ASC) — situated in the southeast neighbourhood of Mills Estate — has received stray cats and dogs found within city limits and worked to reunite them with their owners. 

Dickson said that pets are often successfully returned when they are registered with the city, with contact information accessible through their tattoos, microchips, or physical tags. But regardless of whether a pet is registered, she said that getting them home is becoming harder. 

“The number of animals being claimed by their owners has dropped over recent years,” said Dickson. 

“We’re looking to our partners for support to find these great pets homes and adopt them out to new families.”

Just one year after she started her current position, Dickson said that the centre opened its veterinary clinic in 2009. Funded through pet registration fees, she said that the ability to give on-site medical care to unclaimed animals paved the way for the city to reinstate their pet adoption initiative.

In 2021, the city partnered with the Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS) and later the Calgary Humane Society (CHS) to make finding a home for pets faster. Since then, the city said in an email statement that the ASC has transferred around 3,600 animals to the groups, but that numbers are capped. 

“With the capacity challenges affecting all organizations, our partners are unable to accommodate every adoptable pet,” read the statement.

Cost of living contributing to crowded shelters

For the last four years, both the director of programs at AARCS, Rachel Cote, and the director of public relations at CHS, Anna-Lee Fitzsimmons, said their organizations have been running at capacity. 

While both groups cater to felines and canines, Fitzsimmons said that the CHS receives dogs — specifically large breeds — in higher numbers than cats. She said that this is the result of them not being spayed or neutered, but that the surge in adoptions during the pandemic is the root cause.

“We saw a lot of people kind of rushing to get dogs, it was very trendy,” said Fitzsimmons.

“It was a good time for a lot of people to bring home a dog because they were working from home.”

Cote said that a significant portion of AARCS’s volume came from people giving away their pets after returning to work when restrictions were lifted. She said that adoptions are slowing while surrenders continue to grow, and that the economy is playing a role. 

“People are needing to get second jobs,” said Cote. 

“You can’t leave a dog at home for, you know, 12 or 15 hours while you’re working two jobs. So that becomes really, really difficult for them.”

Additionally, Fitzsimmons said that as the cost of living has increased, so has the popularity of landlords restricting pets. According to the CHS’s annual report for 2024, limited access to pet-friendly housing was one of the top reasons for surrender.

“We see a lot of families that rent having to give up their pet because they’re forced to move, and wherever they’re moving doesn’t allow animals,” said Fitzsimmons.

What is the solution to shelter overcapacity?

Knowing that the last Census of Canada found that 31 per cent of Calgarians lived in rental housing, Fitzsimmons said that Alberta should enact regulations that condemn discriminating against pet owners. 

She recommended that the province adopt rental rules similar to ones in eastern Canada, which, according to the Government of Ontario, prohibits landlords from banning tenants on the basis of them having pets. 

“I think that might be a good model for Alberta to look at. More inclusion, seeing companion animals as members of the family,” said Fitzsimmons. 

Even more, she said that breed restrictions put into place by landlords further contribute to sending shelters into overcapacity. Fitzsimmons said that making pet-friendly properties mandatory in Calgary is not enough, and that all types of dogs should be allowed, too. 

“We’re still seeing some breed-specific rules in some large apartment buildings with zero data supporting that a Pitbull or a Rottweiler…is a less desirable pet to have in a rental apartment than a Chihuahua,” she said. 

To alleviate the saturation of dogs capable of breeding in the city, Fitzsimmons said that affordable neuter and spay procedures are also needed, something the city’s adoptable pet program includes with purchase. 

Until more room at local shelters becomes available, Dickson said that the ASC is shifting from transferring pets to outside organizations to making their selection of take-home-ready animals more attractive to seeking residents.

“Recently, we have transferred less animals to our partners because they don’t have the capacity, so we’re really trying to adopt the pets from here,” she said.

“We’re doing everything we can to find their new forever homes.”