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Guelph Humane Society to host first in-person adoption event in new building

The Home for the Holidays Adoption Event on Friday and Sunday will have 40 animals ready to be adopted

Thirty cats and 10 bunnies will be ready to be adopted at the Guelph Humane Society’s first in-person adoption event in its new building on Hanlon Creek Boulevard. 

The Home for the Holidays Adoption Event on Friday and Saturday will be the first in-person adoption event since the pandemic began last year. 

“If you have been waiting to adopt an animal, now is the time,” said the GHS’s marketing and communications lead, Natalie Thomas.

With the exception of a few kittens and bunnies awaiting their spay and neuter surgeries which will cause a week delay, Thomas said the animals are ready to go home immediately after selection. 

Thomas said the GHS website is down to 20 animals on their website from 50 last week. The GHS has numerous cats, kittens and bunnies coming this week that are being held for the adoption event and are not listed on their online website. 

“We're holding them back just for this event so people will see animals that they haven't seen before,” said Thomas.

When the GHS shut down its building to the public last year due to COVID, they created a virtual contactless adoption process where people could see the list of animals available online, view their bio and meet virtually. For dogs, the GHS still had a meet and greet option due to the nature of dogs. 

“We hear people say 'I went into the old GHS building and the cat reached out and grabbed me, I knew he was the one I knew she was the one,' and people haven't had that opportunity just because they haven't been able to go into shelters and have that experience with the animals," said Thomas. 

“Now we're at a place where we can open up and the public health restrictions are allowing us to have some people in the building if we keep it with the appointments.”

Individuals need to book an appointment for the adoption event. During the appointment, they can spend 20 minutes in the cat adoption room or in a community room set up for small animals.

“We are allowing three families into the adoption rooms at a time, and each family is limited to two people. So you just need to book one space, and that gets you and a second person in with you,” said Thomas. “People can take that time to interact with the animals see if any of them if they find one of their new family members and then they can actually adopt the animal on-site,” said Thomas. 

“With the contactless adoption, people would apply, and then we would sort through their applications and we would pick the best fit and then have an adoption meeting and then set a pickup so it was taking like one to two weeks to actually get your animal. But the awesome thing about the on-site adoptions is that you can just sit down on-site, bring the animal home with you. So we'll have our whole adoption team here to process adoptions.”

She said virtual adoption has been very successful with the adoption of over 1,000 animals since April 2020. 

“We have had a record number of bunnies come into our care this year,” said Thomas. “We have taken in nearly three times the amount of domestic bunnies that we normally see, and we really hope that if you’re looking to add a bunny to your family that you adopt from your local shelter. Because this is  a widespread problem not only here in Ontario, but across Canada and the United States.” 


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Anam Khan

About the Author: Anam Khan

Anam Khan is a journalist who covers numerous beats in Guelph and Wellington County that include politics, crime, features, environment and social justice
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