Regina Humane Society finds pets new homes for the holidays

The Regina Humane Society kicked off their annual Home for the Holidays campaign by hosting their first open house in their new location.

The Regina Humane Society (RHS) kicked off its annual Home for the Holidays campaign on Saturday by hosting its first open house in its new location, bringing community members together for a day of fun with their furry friends.

The event is an initiative to find new homes for animals to go home to during the holidays and featured drinks, snacks, activity stations and Christmas carols from youth in the Milestone Special Events Choir.

According to Bill Thorne, the RHS Director of Marketing and Public Relations, this year’s rehoming campaign has already shown to be successful.

“We’re off to a good start. We started the campaign with 180 animals in care. We’ve had 32 adoptions already this week, so that takes us down to 148,” he said.

“We’ve got a long way to go until the end of December. But the open house is also a way for us to welcome the community into our animal community centre.

Rebecca Carson, the RHS manager of education and outreach, said she organized the event to support the animals in their care while bringing education to those in attendance.

“We would love for the community to see all that we have to offer by way of educational programming, outreach opportunities, enrichment opportunities, as well as all the different animals that we have to potentially become their forever family,” she said.

Randi Brandhagen was in attendance with her two children and says she is no stranger to the building as she is one of the 500 community members who volunteers at the RHS.

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“I heard about this opportunity to make toys, and I thought the kids would really enjoy [it],” she said.

Her son, nine-year-old Jake said with a smile that he did enjoy the toy-making station and snacks provided.

Thorne said that in addition to the open house, there is more to the “Home for the Holidays” campaign that is still to come.

“We have our holiday lottery going on. And our holiday catalogue, which is our largest fundraiser of the year, where people can purchase specific items that we can that we need in the shelter for the pets,” he explained.

Organizers say that there are still plenty of opportunities to visit the cats and dogs at the Regina Humane Society and many more chances for community members to take home their new pet for the holidays.