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The Winnipeg Humane Society (WHS) has experienced a dramatic increase in animal intake during the early stages of its new strategic plan and it has impacted the finances of the organization.

“We’ve done great work, but it comes at a cost,” The WHS CEO Javier Schwersensky said. “More incoming animals require additional funds to care for them. And to make matters more challenging, we were faced with unbudgeted building maintenance costs which hit our budget very hard.”

The WHS’s balanced budget forecast was dashed by an unexpected water bill of $32,000, due to a hidden broken pipe.

Part of the increase of admitted animals is because of The WHS’s effort to work with other rescues in Manitoba. The WHS takes on other rescues’ most difficult cases because it has the veterinarian clinic to care for animals, and behaviour experts who rehabilitate dogs and help them reach full potential.

By the end of November 2015, The WHS admitted 8,220 animals, 579 more compared to the first 11 months of 2014.

While The WHS is taking in more animals, the not-for-profit organization is also adopting more pets in 2015 with a total of 4,148 at the end of November. The organization has surpassed last year’s adoption total of 3,915 due to a sharp increase in satellite adoption numbers.

But adopting animals comes at an expense. The WHS subsidizes each adoption. Every day an animal spends in the shelter, the financial impact increases. An animal’s care, and the staff time needed to work on behaviour re-training and health issues, costs more than what is recovered in adoption fees.

The WHS hopes to raise $30,000 for the animals in its care before the end of 2015. The organization receives minimum government funding, so it needs the financial contribution of its supporters and community to keep accepting more animals. These funds allow The WHS to accept more animals, nurse them back to health, re-train behaviour in dogs, and ensure pets find forever homes. Without donor support, The WHS adoption program would not exist.

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The Winnipeg Humane Society is Manitoba’s oldest and largest animal welfare agency. The WHS is more than just pet adoption – the shelter’s behaviour experts work closely with dogs to reach their full potential, and a fully-functional veterinary clinic performs subsidized spay and neuter surgeries for Winnipeggers on fixed or low-income. For more information, visit winnipeghumanesociety.ca.