A Central Alberta animal rescue is urgently trying to find people interested in adopting animals.
Saving Grace Animal Society, located in Alix, is currently over capacity and is continuing to receive an increasing amount of animal intake calls.
"We've been seeing an increase in intakes over the course of the last year," said Erin Deems, Saving Grace's executive director.
"But with the weather changing, those intake calls have really amped up. Unfortunately we have so many animals in care, so it's really hard to go out and continue to rescue even though those calls have increased substantially."
Deems said "it's heartbreaking" having to say no to an intake call.
"It's never easy for us as an organization to turn people away, but that's where we're at," said Deems.
From Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, the animal rescue is hosting an open house, where all adoptions fees are by donation, to respond to the challenging situation. Deems said the hope is to have 30-40 animals adopted throughout the three-day open house.
"We decided to do an open house so people don't have to book appointments. They can just show up and we can show them any animal we have in care and find the one that's best suited for them," said Deems.
"We wanted to have the adoption fees as by donation, so we're able to move out as many animals as possible while we continue on into the winter. That way we'd have some space available so we can start saying yes (to intake calls) again."
There are ways people can help ease the stress being felt at Saving Grace, Deems added.
"We're always looking for people to step up and open their homes as fosters. That allows us to continue to say yes to intake calls. Now is a good time for anyone considering adoption — we've got lots of great animals right now," said Deems.
For more information on Saving Grace Animal Society, visit www.savinggracecanada.com.
