Meet the Victoria Humane Society, a Pet Valu Companions for Changeᵀᴹ supported charity

Based in Southern BC, the Victoria Humane Society’s work extends well beyond the city, serving remote communities throughout the province. They began their work a decade ago but have seen a marked uptick in need in the years following the pandemic.  “COVID definitely set us back 20 years," says Penny Stone, the organization’s Executive Director. “When I first started in animal welfare 20 years ago, it wasn't as bad. It was bad, but it wasn't as bad as it is now. We worked really hard to get every animal spayed and neutered. We worked really hard to build relationships with remote communities so that we could help them to stop these animals from breeding and stop all these homeless animals.”  Today, says Stone, the Humane Society is having to contend with more homeless animals than ever and the causes, she explains, are twofold.  “During the lockdown everybody wanted a puppy so people started thinking it was a good way to make quick cash. People were breeding shepherds with huskies and calling them crazy names and selling them for $2,500. So we’ve ended up with all these dogs and people who really didn't know what they were getting into. People had dogs that were a year or two old and they hadn't socialized them.” The problem of more dogs is met with worsening economic situations for many pet families all across Canada. “Nobody can afford the price of the cost of anything anymore. So we're seeing people give up their animals in larger amounts than ever before because of finances or because they have to move and they can't find a place to take their animals,” Stone says. While the Humane Society in Victoria is receiving more requests for shelter support, they’re also faced with a deficit of families who can afford to adopt pets. Currently, the organization is foster-based and doesn’t have the capacity to shelter animals on their own. They hope this will change soon though, thanks to a new project that will see the society open its first shelter facility.  “We're working really hard,” says Stone. “We've been looking at properties and we've been looking at plans for a perfect building. If you'd asked me 10 years ago if we were going to build a facility, I would have probably said no. I would have said that we can do it all in foster homes. But times have changed so much in the last four or five years that we absolutely need a facility now. We absolutely need to be able to say yes to the animals because there's just way too many of them.”  In 2020, Pet Valu sponsored the purchase of a transport van that helps the organization reach remote BC locales safely and more efficiently.  “It was a game changer for us. We had stopped being able to go into some of the remote communities because we didn't have a vehicle that was dependable,” says Stone. “And we didn't have one that could get enough animals out at a time.” With the new van, they no longer have to rely on too-small, borrowed, or unreliable cars.  The van is a “game-changer,” she says.