80 Stray dogs from Texas getting flown in to Windsor this weekend

Windsor, Ont. -

Dozens of stray dogs from El Paso, Texas will be flown to Windsor this weekend while inundated American animal shelters struggle to find space.

Windsor Essex County Humane Society executive director Melanie Coulter says about 80 dogs will arrive Sunday to be placed in temporary foster homes before being made available for adoption.

“This is a very big transport for us,” says Coulter. “This is definitely the biggest one.”

Coulter says cross-border animal transfers are not uncommon, noting similar partnerships have been arranged in the past from as far away as Mississippi.

“We’re finding they’re getting multiple applications within a few minutes of going up for adoption, so, there’s a lot of loving homes that want to adopt an animal,” Coulter says. “If we can bring them from Texas and give them those homes here, that’s going to be great for everybody.”

Chief veterinarian with the City of El Paso Animal Services in Texas Alana Canupp says the need to home dogs in her city is great.

“We just have more adoptable dogs than we have adopters in this region,” she says.

Canupp says animal intake at the Texas centre had to be reduced during pandemic restrictions, explaining when things reopened in July, an influx of animals came into their care.

“Our stray dogs aren’t just all pit bulls and Chihuahuas,” she says. “We get a very wide variety of different types of dogs, especially small fluffy dogs here in El Paso, which is kind of unique.”

While the organization has done many flight transfers to different American regions over the years, this will be the first venture across the Canadian border.

“You guys taking 80 dogs is going to immediately open up kennels for dogs that we probably will get in the very next day,” Canupp says.

She says transferring the dogs on Sunday won’t solve the problem but it will ease the burden.

“I sometimes equate shelter medicine to the postal service. You can deliver all the mail in your truck one day and the next day your truck is full again,” Canupp explains.

She says they have successfully reduced animal intake at the shelter over the last five years from 28,000 animals to 18,000 a year, thanks to partnerships like this.

“We are going in the right direction,” Canupp adds.

The Shelter Outreach and Policy Director at the Bissell Pet Foundation Kim Alboum says there are many pets in El Paso that need homes, and they’re very excited to be assisting with the cross-border transfer.

“Imagine in El Paso right now they just have pets coming in the door constantly, she says. ”These are some really, really lucky dogs.”

Alboum notes this is also the foundation’s first partnership to transport animals across the US/Canada border, but hopes it’s not the last.

“Unfortunately this pet over-population issue is not just in El Paso. We are experiencing this is Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, all of our south eastern states really struggle.”

The Bissell Pet Foundation is paying for the cost of the flight and support team to transfer the dogs to Canada. Coulter says there are still a lot of expenses associated with the transfer.

“Things people don’t think about, like sending those crates back to Texas so they can do another transport and help get more dogs to another community,” she says.

Coulter tells CTV News that border rules prevent puppies under eight months old to be brought across the border, saying they’re working with five other shelters in Ontario to take 30 of the dogs when they arrive.

Coulter says the demand for dog adoption in Windsor-Essex remains high, but has cooled since the pandemic peak. Coulter says only a few canines are available right now, as many get adopted the same day they’re listed.

“Even now that the demand has decreased a little bit, there is still a lot of demand of people looking to adopt dogs and sometimes it can be challenging if you’re trying to adopt one of the puppies we have available from another transport,” she adds.

Coulter says the arriving animals should be available in a couple weeks, encouraging anyone interested to keep checking the dog adoption website.