Throughout 2023, our team created 16 new public resources and updated seven behaviour and training resource guides to ensure up-to-date information for all audiences. Our free resource guides help pet guardians improve relationships with their pets and address specific behaviour and health concerns.

In 2023, we reinforced our commitment to proactive advocacy by updating our position statements on important topics. We updated our position statement on dangerous dog laws and breed restrictions, recognizing the need for balanced approaches that prioritize safety while avoiding breed-specific discrimination. Additionally, we refined our position on vertebrate pest management to promote humane methods of control that minimize animal suffering. Acknowledging the significance of responsible pet ownership, we strengthened our position on the sterilization of companion animals to address overpopulation and promote the health and well-being of pets. We also created a new position statement on live feeding, emphasizing our stance against practices that subject animals to unnecessary harm and suffering. These updates reflect our ongoing commitment to education, policies and practices that prioritize the welfare of all animals in our care and community.

In 2023, EHS’s Animal Health team continued to grow with the recruitment of a veterinarian with a special interest in Orthopedics. Our veterinarians also hosted a lab with a local surgeon to refine a surgical technique called Femoral Head Ostectomy. Registered Veterinary Technicians and Veterinary Medical Assistants also enrolled in the Low Stress Handling®– Silver certification program to enhance skills in handling animals with care and minimize stress during examinations and procedures.

Always endeavouring to inform and educate our staff, update our processes and keep our facility state of the art, we brought in two experts in animal welfare in 2023. With their expertise and feedback on capacity for care, as well as animal flow through EHS into new homes, we had a decrease in average length of stay in shelter in 2023 compared to previous years.

We launched our Pet Pantry program in 2023, which helps pet owners facing financial barriers access food and supplies for their companion animals.

Our entire EHS team strived to increase overall adoption numbers, and in 2023, we saw 3,471 animals adopted to new homes, the highest number since pre-COVID adoption levels in 2019. We hosted six adoption events throughout the year, which contributed to seeing more animals adopted than previous years.

In 2023, our foster department started testing on a new initiative where the foster parent would bring dogs into the shelter to spend time in a Meet and Greet pen. This created additional exposure opportunities with no appointment required for potential adopters to spend time with animals in foster. Another initiative introduced in 2023 was a Touch Tank in Bingo’s Pet Shop, where adopters could interact with small animals. We also partnered with the Edmonton Journal on a weekly feature, allowing us to highlight up to 15 animals in both print and digital advertising.

We enabled a pathway for the public to be able to directly sponsor EHS animals, either fully or partially. This helps to bring added attention to the animals and helps to offset adoption fees for families. This is done through a feature on the selected pet’s profile that the public can click on and choose how much they would like to sponsor the animal for. The animal’s portfolio is also then updated with a graphic to indicate the sponsorship. In 2023, donors who had a specific EHS adoptable touch their heart supported this new pathway and sponsored a total of $6,776 towards adoption fees for animals in our care.

Some of our small animals such as hedgehogs, ferrets, chinchillas and birds have a limited but very passionate audience of adopters. We initiated a waitlist for these small animals where we can reach out directly to interested adopters when they are available. This has sped up the adoption process for these animals and decreases overall length of stay.

2023 saw promising growth and new beginnings for Humane Education. Our highly requested Pet-Sitters Course was heavily refreshed and relaunched. We successfully held both Summer and Fall Camps with more participant spaces available. We hosted our 6th annual ‘Be Kind to Animals Week’ offering free lesson plans to teachers and we participated in Read-In Week, connecting with a total of 1,358 students over five days and over 10 more classrooms compared to 2022. Overall, Humane Education reached 2,825 youth, a 15 percent increase compared to the prior year.

EHS has been a longstanding member of Humane Canada, an organization that serves as Canada’s federation of SPCAs and humane societies, advancing the welfare of animals, with a strong national voice promoting animal welfare interests and concerns to government, policy makers, industry and the public. In 2023, our CEO joined the Humane Canada Board of Directors. EHS also continued our work with the Animal Welfare Coalition of Alberta. Being a part of these two groups serves to strengthen our ties in the animal welfare community and add our voice to these important conversations.

We collaborated with numerous partners including the RCMP, City of Edmonton’s Animal Care and Control Centre, Alberta SPCA and numerous rescue organizations to support wildfire evacuees, primarily through the collection and distribution of donated supplies. EHS served as a direct pick-up location for those in need. We also took in animals for Emergency Boarding to assist during the devastating wildfire season. Our community really stepped up to help families and pets impacted by wildfires, providing over $65,000 in cash donations as well as over 30,000 pounds of pet supplies. Donations were distributed at EHS as well as by partner agencies to those in need.

Through the PALS program, 693 cats and dogs were spayed/neutered in 2023. This includes 170 surgeries performed on the Edmonton Humane Society Mobile Unit at various locations across Edmonton, including Alberta Helping Animals Society, Inglewood Community League, Bissell Thrift Shop and AARCS North Haven.

In 2023, the Canadian Animal Task Force (CATF) completed their mentorship program at EHS, allowing us to hold independent clinics for the first time. Our ongoing partnership with CATF led to one large-scale clinic in 2023, and then we conducted two clinics independently.

Our numerous community partners play a vital role in enforcing animal welfare laws, regulations and sharing of resources. Together, we build stronger and more compassionate communities. Throughout 2023, we worked alongside many community partner organizations, including numerous Bylaw officers, the RCMP, Alberta SPCA, and additional rescue and community partners. In addition, four of our medical staff, including our Director of Animal Health, embarked on an outreach trip to Fort McKay, and performed 21 spay/neuter surgeries in a single day. The Fort McMurray SPCA hosted and partnered with our EHS medical team for this outreach initiative.

This past year, we continued to host ongoing training for our team. Our Behavior team provided classes on loose leash dog walking for both staff and volunteers, enabling them to have more confidence in handling dogs. We also hosted a canine aggression specialist, who provided in-person training for staff about dog body language, including how to properly break up a dog fight. Members of the City of Edmonton Animal Care and Control Centre also joined this educational session. Members of our staff, including our Senior Leadership team and our Animal Welfare Advisor, participated in the City of Edmonton Animal Licencing and Control by-law renewal project and engagement sessions in order to provide our feedback and voice to the process. We held over 20 additional staff learning sessions covering a wide variety of topics including noise and felines, dog body language and the Jane Goodall act – just to name a few!

We launched EHS’s Volunteer Advisory Committee, a group of 10 volunteers from across EHS who provide recommendations on specific volunteer-related projects, events, policies and procedures. The committee meets quarterly to provide valuable feedback to enhance the volunteer experience at EHS. We established a new behaviour volunteer liaison. This role is held by a member of the EHS behaviour team and supports volunteers providing enrichment for dogs in the shelter, provides valuable guidance on volunteer training and education sessions and is the link between the Community Engagement and Behaviour Teams and our volunteers.

To encourage conversation amongst all departments and provide employees with insight into all various areas of EHS, we continued to hold monthly staff meetings throughout 2023. In addition, we implemented a dual safety moment into these meetings featuring workplace safety and animal behaviour. These monthly staff meetings fostered a team environment by creating a sense of unity and camaraderie while allowing learning opportunities to take place. Additionally, we continued sending Pulse Surveys throughout the year to collect feedback and shout-outs from staff.

As an organization that values and appreciates the dedication of our staff and volunteers, we introduced the Years of Service Recognition Program for both staff and volunteers. Our Staff Service Recognition Program recognizes employees based on years of service, whereas our Volunteer Recognition Program recognizes volunteers based on the hours they have contributed during their various volunteer experiences.

EHS was proud to be named a Nonprofit Employer of Choice (NEOC) for 2023, for a third year in a row. The two-step assessment included an organization profile evaluating the nonprofit leadership attributes and human resources policies, practices and procedures, in addition to a comprehensive employee commitment survey. EHS, along with 21 other organizations across Canada, were recognized with this distinction.

Our facility directly contributes to the health and welfare of our animals and our people. In 2023, we painted and refreshed several areas throughout the shelter, installed LED retrofits, replaced a second aging boiler system, repaired fences and walking path landscaping, had an arborist do general tree and shrub maintenance, and installed noise dampening measures throughout the shelter.

In early 2023, we moved to a new IT provider, allowing for quicker helpdesk times, enhanced support and staff training around cyber security.

In 2023, we worked hard to increase our Charity Intelligence Score from a 3 to 4 out of 5 stars. This included an increase in our results reporting from a B- to an A-.

In 2020, EHS developed its first framework for identifying and rating risks we face and cataloging risk mitigation strategies in place. This information was used to calculate residual risks and determine priorities for further mitigation. Our risk management policy mandates the review of our risk register every two years. This work was completed in early 2023 and involved the participation of a wide variety of staff, including senior leaders, department managers and supervisors. A number of updates were made, including the addition of new risks, refining language around existing risks, re-rating scores, re-documenting existing mitigation strategies and calculating residual risk scores. The resulting priority list guides our risk mitigation work to ensure EHS remains strong and sustainable.

We are very excited to be in the process of receiving our Imagine Canada Accreditation, Canada’s most widely recognized nonprofit standards accreditation. In 2023, we prepared for our accreditation and submitted our application, which was accepted by Imagine Canada in Q4. We are now eagerly awaiting our accreditation to be finalized.

Throughout 2023, work continued to be guided by our 2020-2024 strategic plan – a plan that focused on creating a strong foundation for future success. As we worked through the second half of this plan, we also set our sights on what is next for EHS. This led to the initial phases of our next strategic plan being developed, which will propel us to new heights. We began work by engaging consultants to help us in shaping internal and external conversations about what the next strategic plan should include.