The stats for the Cochrane and Area Humane Society are in and 2017 was their busiest year to date.

The Humane Society, which provides services to Airdrie as well as Cochrane, celebrates 20 years of successfully sheltering animals this year. Fund Development Officer Jaimie Anton said they cared for 31 percent more animals in 2017 compared to the previous year.

"Last year [2016] we had 1,403 animals and this year we're at 1,733, so the busiest year ever," said Anton.

48 percent of the animals the Humane society cared for were cats and 49 percent were dogs, relatively equal to 2016. Birds, rabbits, and guinea pigs made up the remaining percentage. "Every year we've seen a definite increase in service and needs."

In awe of how many people opened their homes and hearts to foster, Anton said volunteers are the backbone of the organization. "In terms of volunteering we had  520 volunteers donate over 30,000 hours of their time and then we had 111 foster homes that fostered 883 animals over 2017, so without our foster homes and our volunteers we couldn't do the numbers we've seen. They helped us out tremendously."

The increased numbers forced the shelter to get creative for space at times, but they have never euthanized any animals to handle the extra load, nor do they plan to going forward. "That is where our foster families are absolutely invaluable to us in terms of being able to take some of those pressures off. Particularly in taking our litters of puppies and kittens and getting them socialized and brought up in a home environment as well as some of our residents that might need a little longer of time because of medical issues, recovering from injuries or surgeries or those just needing a break from the shelter if they have been there awhile."

Sponsorship, donations and cals for help from local businesses and the community at large was also key in helping the shelter get through their busiest year through sponsorship, donations, and calls for help if required.

 

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