Animal adoption demand up since March as Calgarians seek companionship

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“We can’t go onto the community right now because of the COVID restrictions, so there are a lot of dogs needing rescue, now more than ever, but unless they’re brought to us or we’re contacted by them, these dogs are homeless and dying.”

O’Neill said the organization also gets dogs from Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but they, too, are restricted and getting out there has been impossible.

Some rescues said they have seen more requests to become foster parents to animals, of which Calgarian Sonia Lang is one.

Lang and her husband put down their 15-year-old golden retriever in the summer and were looking to get a new pup of the same breed. But demand across the city made it nearly impossible for them to find a dog that would be a good fit in their home, with a five-year-old and a new baby.

“We started looking and in the beginning it was very, very hard to find a golden retriever . . . We tried to go through a few rescue locations but we wanted a puppy because we wanted our kids to grow up with it,” she said. “We were even put on a three-year wait list.”

The couple ended up fostering a few dogs but none were a good fit. Eventually, they found a breeder through Kijiji who delivered their new puppy, Riggs, in mid-October.

“It’s been incredible for my son, who’s five; he can’t go outside and play with the other kids or go to anyone’s house and he’s very outgoing, so at school with the masks he couldn’t even make friends in the beginning,” she said.

When they brought Riggs home, Lang said she saw an immediate change in her son.