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Upper Credit Humane Society gets more time to find a new home

The Town of Erin has given the organization until 2028 to find a new permanent location
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UCHS's lease has been extended for an additional five years, giving the organization more time to find a new space.

ERIN – A Wellington County humane society has a little more time to find a new place. 

The Upper Credit Humane Society (UCHS) — which serves Erin, Guelph/Eramosa and Halton Hills as well as taking in overflow animals from other shelters — had its lease renewed at the Town of Erin owned building at 5383 Trafalgar Rd. at the Wellington Road 124 intersection. 

The not-for-profit organization initially had to find a new home by October 2024 but the town announced in a press release the lease has been extended by five more years.

“We’ve got a little bit of breathing room, which is kind of nice,” said Lisa Pietras, UCHS board chair, adding the lease will now be up in 2028. “After that, we definitely do have to be out, but that gives us five years to start preparing.” 

Now with a firm deadline, Pietras said it’s more crucial than ever to find a suitable place. She has been looking, but so far a dozen or more prospects haven’t panned out with a recurring problem when Pietras would go view the property.

“A lot of these places were on Trafalgar Road towards Highway 7 and that’s pretty much all Niagara Escarpment,” Pietras said. “There are different rules for building anything on the Niagara Escarpment. You have to go through a really lengthy application process and licensing and all this stuff. Not only is it time consuming but it’s also really expensive.”

Pietras said the UCHS is looking for something more private, for example someone who can lease a few acres of land or donate it in kind. 

“We’re really hoping to try to get the community more involved and see if we can get some flyers going or something or knock on doors. We’re trying to think of a way to do a campaign that can reach people,” Pietras said, noting a lot of people in the area are not frequently online enough to campaign exclusively on social media. 

This set deadline also gives UCHS much more time to fundraise with Pietras noting the relocation fund still has a long way to go. 

The board chair said the new location doesn’t necessarily have to be in Erin due to serving such a large area but they would prefer to stay locally.

“Everyone knows us here and that’s kind of the main community that we serve,” Pietras said. “Really, we’re not going to be too picky I think at this point. We want to be able to serve the same area we’re serving.”

More information on the UCHS and its events can be found here.


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Keegan Kozolanka

About the Author: Keegan Kozolanka

Keegan Kozolanka is a general assignment reporter for EloraFergusToday, covering Wellington County. Keegan has been working with Village Media for more than two years and helped launch EloraFergusToday in 2021.
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