Surrey dog ‘pity party’ leads to new home, after a year wait at shelter

After spending a year at a shelter in Surrey, a dog has found a home. It’s all thanks to a unique Facebook post from the Surrey Animal Resource Centre, which says it’s taking much longer for animals to be adopted.

The social media post showed the five-year-old multi-breed pup against a festive backdrop and balloons and leis in the foreground. A draped sign proclaimed it “Emma’s Pitty Party.”

“The pity party was because we felt sorry for her,” explained Shelley Joaquin, manager of the Surrey Animal Resource Centre.

Someone who saw that post reached out to the shelter in recent days.

“She left to go into a foster home yesterday,” Joaquin said Monday. “We’re very excited … It was lovely to see her hop into the car and leave the shelter and we’re hoping that turns into a forever home.”

Emma’s year-long stay was the longest ever at the shelter.

“We’ve seen in the last year a steady increase in length of stay for animals staying at the shelter while they’re waiting for homes,” Joaquin said, echoing sentiments expressed by staff with the BC SPCA and the Coquitlam animal shelter.

“If that animal is in that kennel for a year, that’s a lot less dogs that we can actually take in. Pre-COVID, dogs would stay in the shelter maybe a couple of weeks — three, four weeks at the most. To go from that to a year, that’s a huge increase,” she added.

The shelter has started up a new program where dogs can sometimes be taken in short-term, in order for staff to get a better idea of their ideal forever home.

“You can take the dog overnight or for the weekends and just get to see them in the home setting so we kind of know what kind of home they actually need. It’s hard to say when the come in as strays, because we just don’t have that history.”

At the height of the COVID pandemic — when people were spending a lot more time at home — shelters were flooded with applications for adoption. Last week, the BC SPCA said they would sometimes get as many as 100 calls within 24 hours from people interested in a puppy.

However, as more people started going back into the office, applications have dwindled and shelters are filling up.

Joaquin encourages anyone looking to welcome a pet into their home to consider adoption. While many people look to get a puppy, she says there are upsides to getting an adult dog instead.

“Puppies are like having babies. So if you like to sleep in, if you don’t want to rush home after work or clean up accidents in the house or have your new furniture chewed … When you’re adopting an adult dog, you can kind of see where they’re at,” she explained.

Related articles:

• Animal adoptions slow down for first time since start of pandemic: BC SPCA

• Coquitlam dog ‘Gemma’ finds forever home after waiting a year to be adopted

She notes it’s not uncommon for the shelter to get calls from people who have gotten a puppy and decided it’s too much for them.

“And then some people want to rehome them … when they start getting a little bit bigger.”

In addition to dogs and cats, there are also hamsters, guinea pigs, and rabbits available for adoption at the Surrey Animal Resource Centre. You can get more information from the shelter’s Facebook page and email adoption@surrey.ca for more information.

You need to make an appointment to view a dog you might want to adopt. However, the shelter does have viewing hours for the other animals. You can drop in Thursday through Sunday between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.