P.E.I. Humane Society seeing more animals surrendered because of no-pet rental units

Humans aren’t the only ones affected by P.E.I.’s housing crisis.

The number of pets being surrendered to the P.E.I. Humane Society is also on the rise partially due to the lack of pet-friendly apartment units available in the province.

Development manager Jennifer Harkness said the society has received about 391 surrendered pets this year, with 64 of those being for moving reasons.

That’s up significantly from the 292 surrendered, 41 for moving reasons, by this point in 2017.

While some moving reasons are related to emergency housing or domestic reasons, most are because the owner cannot find a pet-friendly unit.

“That would be the majority,” said Harkness. “We do hear that often, and it is unfortunate.”

While there are also a number of people who surrender pets if moving off P.E.I., those are not included in the numbers. Neither are the number of people who re-home pets on Kijiji because of non-pet friendly apartments.

Harkness said there are also, unfortunately, some situations where landlords return to an empty apartment to find a pet left behind.

“That is a call that we do get occasionally,” she said.

The P.E.I. Humane Society has recently made its surrender fee voluntary in hopes of reducing the number of abandoned strays — a strategy that is working and contributing to the higher number of surrenders. Harkness cautioned the public that, if they are surrendering a pet, to call ahead of time. While the society will accept surrendered animals without judgment, there are some who wait until their moving day to call.