Humane society launches holiday hamper drive amid spike in pet food bank demand

Rachelle St. Cyr has had to scrape together change or go without basic necessities if it means her three cats are happy and healthy.

The 49-year-old self-described animal lover has had her two senior cats, named Boots and Mittens, for more than 16 years. The newest addition, seven-month-old Max, was an outdoor stray she couldn’t bring herself to leave behind.

But as the cost of living has skyrocketed so, too, has the cost of pet food and litter, and St. Cyr has visited the Winnipeg Humane Society’s pet food bank to fill the gaps.

“My cats eat better than I do,” she said Wednesday. “My cats sometimes eat more than I can afford to feed myself.”

The number of appointments at the WHS pet food bank more than tripled last month compared with April, according to data shared by the organization.

The food bank had 88 appointments in April and 301 in October.

The humane society has launched its first-ever pet food holiday hamper drive to support its food bank after the 242 per cent increase in demand.

Organizers are hoping to distribute at least 100 hampers for dogs and cats, helping to relieve the financial pressure many people face during the holiday season.

St. Cyr spends $150 a month for food recommended by her vet, along with other necessities. It’s particularly difficult for her to manage in her budget, because she has fibromyalgia and receives disability income support.

As her cats age, vet visits become more frequent. She said the cost of cat food has risen over the past six months.

St. Cyr becomes emotional as she adds up the costs. It’s hard, she said, to think about how expensive taking care of her cats has become, but to her, they are family.

“I’m grateful for any help I get with my cats,” she said. “It’s embarrassing, sometimes, that I have to ask online for litter or something, because something came out of my account, or extra bills.

“It’s like, ‘What do I do? Litter, or this bill?’ and then I get cut off of something. Every month it’s trying to figure out what I can skip this month to help my cats.”

The WHS food bank was launched during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — then called the “emergency pet food bank” — but when it became clear the need wasn’t going to stop growing, “emergency” was dropped from the name and it became a permanent fixture, said Kendra Galbraith, the society’s community outreach manager.

“I think the more our program gets known out in the community, the more people are starting to access it, because they really are struggling to feed themselves,” she said. “We don’t want them having to choose between themselves or their animals.”

More than 1,300 people have registered for the pet food bank online, which requests proof of income and allows recipients to book appointments, but Galbraith said the agency wants to ensure no one is turned away.

“Every month it’s trying to figure out what I can skip this month to help my cats.”

“The main goal here of this program is just to keep animals out of the shelter and for them to stay with their families,” she said.

The humane society has added satellite locations at the West End Resource Centre and the North Point Douglas Women’s Centre in the past year to improve access to its food bank, and hosted pop-up food banks.

Despite the effort, rising costs have forced some people to part with their animals.

At the Winnipeg Pet Rescue Shelter, calls from people surrendering animals because they can no longer afford to care for them have jumped from the occasional call to more than 100 in the past year, said Carla Martinelli-Irvine, the facility’s executive director.

“Unfortunately, the animal is suffering in the meantime, because they’re not bringing it to us right away…. We hear, ‘Well, if you can’t take it, we’re going to throw it outside, because we haven’t been able to feed it for the last two weeks,’” she said.

The winter holidays are when the shelter receives a large number of its donations, Irvine said. They have held their own food drives in the past to keep animals fed.

“If we don’t get (donations) at Christmas time, we’re kind of up the creek, because our vet bills are getting higher, our cost of feeding is really high, we go through 500 pounds of cat litter a week at the shelter,” she said.

The Winnipeg Pet Rescue Shelter takes donations online.

The WHS pet food bank’s list of desired items, including food, toys and treats, can be found at wfp.to/pethamper. Hamper donations will be accepted at 45 Hurst Way until Dec. 3. People can donate to the food bank financially at wfp.to/whsdonate. The hampers will be distributed at the West End Resource Centre, 3-4 p.m. on Dec. 16.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca