If We Want to Help More Animals, We Need to Get Better at Using What We Already Have 

By Sonya Reichel, Ontario SPCA and Humane Society  

Across Canada, animal welfare organizations are under increasing pressure, and the drivers are becoming more consistent year over year. Surrenders are rising, not because people care less about their animals, but because they are increasingly unable to afford to keep them. National data from the 2025 Hill’s Canada State of Shelter Pet Adoption Report shows that cost is now one of the most significant barriers to both having pets and adoption, with a majority of Canadians identifying veterinary expenses as a primary concern. 

We’re seeing that reality play out in very tangible ways. 

In Muskoka this past year, our team worked with three individuals who were each caring for large numbers of cats and no longer able to manage. In total, 129 cats were brought into care –but not all at once. The team worked with these individuals to create a structured intake plan that didn’t overwhelm them or the system, ensuring the animals could be cared for safely and responsibly. 

Those intakes alone prevented the reproduction of more than an estimated 2,300 cats in the surrounding communities.  

That is the reality of the current environment. It’s not a lack of compassion driving these challenges, but affordability pressures, limited access to veterinary care, and gaps in support services when they’re needed most. 

The question, then, is not whether more animals need help. It is how we respond to that demand in a way that is responsible to both the animals we serve and the donors who make the work possible. 

Over the past two years, we have seen meaningful growth in our ability to support animals. Intake has continued to rise, and adoptions reached 6,325 in 2025, representing a 10.3% increase over the previous year. At the same time, live outcomes reached 96.6%, and length of stay continued to decline. What is notable is that this progress did not come from significant expansion in infrastructure. It came from a deliberate shift toward optimizing how the system functions. 

One of the clearest examples of this is the reduction in length of stay, which decreased from 23.6 days to 20.5 days in 2025. A three-day reduction may appear incremental, but in operational terms it represents a meaningful increase in capacity. When animals move through the system more efficiently, the same physical space can support more animals over time. This is increasingly reflected in Canadian shelter data, where efficiency of care –not just intake volume –is emerging as a defining factor in overall outcomes. 

This focus on flow extended into intake practices. Rather than treating intake as a passive function, centres began aligning surrender scheduling with surgical availability and adoption demand. Animals entering care earlier in the week could receive necessary procedures mid-week and be ready for adoption during peak weekend periods, reducing delays and helping more animals find homes sooner. These are operational decisions, but they are also strategic ones, because they allow existing resources to go further. 

At the same time, there has been a necessary shift toward earlier intervention. In 2025, 8,570 spay and neuter surgeries were completed, alongside more than 2,000 wellness appointments. This work is often less visible than adoption, but it is one of the most effective ways to reduce future demand on the system. The Hill’s Canada report reinforces this, noting that financial barriers to veterinary care are directly linked to both delayed treatment and increased likelihood of surrender. When access to care improves, intake pressure decreases. 

Coordination across the system has also emerged as a critical factor. In 2025, external transfers increased, including a 64.9% rise in animals coming from Northern communities. In addition, the Ontario SPCA’s Provincial Animal Transfer Hub supported 330 animals in its first full year of operation. Coordinated transfer efforts allowed animals to be moved across regions within 48 hours, ensuring that they were placed in locations with the highest likelihood of adoption. This is particularly important in a province as geographically diverse as Ontario, where access to services and adoption demand are not evenly distributed. 

In 2026, our clinical capacity expanded in a more direct and visible way with the opening of our Sudbury Animal Hospital, strengthening our ability to deliver care in Northern Ontario where access has historically been limited. This was not simply an addition of physical space, but a strategic extension of the model we have been building—bringing spay and neuter services, primary veterinary care, and urgent support closer to communities that need it most. The Sudbury clinic increases our ability to intervene earlier, reduce the need for long-distance transfers, and support both owned and shelter animals within the region. It also allows us to better align clinical services with intake and adoption flow across nearby centres, further improving system efficiency. In a landscape where access to veterinary care continues to be a key driver of surrender, expanding clinical presence in underserved regions is one of the most meaningful ways we can both respond to current demand and prevent future pressure on the system. 

Equally important is our investment in training and workforce capability. In 2025 alone, more than 14,600 hours were dedicated to onboarding new staff, supported by ongoing training in animal handling, behaviour, and safety. Teams conducted 721 behavioural assessments and delivered 154 post-adoption support calls, reinforcing the role of behaviour programming as a core component of successful outcomes. As the complexity of cases increases –a trend also identified in national reporting –this type of investment becomes essential to maintaining both outcomes and staff safety. 

Capacity has also been extended through community-based models. Volunteers contributed nearly 23,000 hours in 2025 –equivalent to 11 full-time staff –and the number of active foster homes increased by 56%. These are not supplementary programs. When structured intentionally, they function as an extension of the organization, increasing both capacity and quality of care without requiring proportional increases in cost. 

Taken together, these shifts point to a broader conclusion. In a charitable environment, impact is often associated with expansion, but expansion is only one path, and it is often the most resource intensive. Optimization –how effectively we use the resources we already have –is equally important, and in many cases more sustainable. 

This is ultimately a question of stewardship. Every donor dollar carries an expectation that it will be used thoughtfully and effectively. That means reducing unnecessary time in care, preventing avoidable intake, improving adoption outcomes, and ensuring that support reaches communities where access has historically been limited. 

The pressures facing animal welfare organizations in Canada are not likely to ease in the near term. Economic conditions, housing challenges, and rising costs will continue to shape the landscape. What remains within our control is how we design our systems to respond. 

Helping more animals is not simply a function of scale. It is a function of how precisely –and how responsibly –we use what we already have.