
440 animals in care at Ottawa Humane Society
It's one of the busiest times of the year at the Ottawa Humane Society, caring for hundreds of animals.
Cats making up the majority, with marketing and communications senior manager of the Society Stephen Smith saying there are over 300 in care.
'Summer is the busiest time at the Ottawa Humane Society and there's a couple reasons we see this, number one kitten season cats are outside they might be breeding, we're seeing litters of kittens coming into our care,' Smith says.
Smith says they also tend to see more strays this time of year as well.
'People are spending more time outdoors and the door might be left open, people might be letting their cats outside and they don't return at night, there's a number of reasons animals might become stray, and again, the Ottawa Humane Society is here to help them get home,' Smith says.
The shelter is not at capacity, and Smith says they will always find room for animals in need.
Along with monetary, toy and food donations, the shelter is asking for more volunteer help during these times, whether that be at the society, or through fostering.
'We're always looking for more foster volunteers, especially those who might be able to take on a large dog who have behavioral challenges,' Smith says. 'If you or somebody who has a lot of experience with dogs, maybe a little bit of a larger property available for them to get a bit more space, the help is always appreciated.'
'If you'd also like to take a litter of kittens for a week or so, we also need that support too. So come one, come all.'
Donations can be made at the Ottawa Humane Society website.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
How a group of orcas were captured — and some freed — in B.C. waters over 50 years ago
Social Sharing March 1, 1970. It was a blustery, cold morning off the southern tip of Vancouver Island when four men on a boating trip spotted something unusual in the waves. A white dorsal fin. A white orca. Seeing the creatures is extremely rare; in 2020, Stephanie Hayes, a marine biology PhD candidate with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, told CBC News only about 10 white orcas had been recorded in history. This white orca and its pod, four black and white killer whales, became known as the Pedder Bay 5. Enter Bob Wright. The 40-year-old master angler was also the owner of Sealand of the Pacific, an aquarium in Oak Bay, B.C., just outside Victoria on Vancouver Island's southern tip. The aquarium was a major part of Wright's growing waterfront empire at the Oak Bay Marina, about a five kilometre drive from downtown Victoria. A pair of young whale trainers and budding conservationists happened to be accompanying Wright that day in 1970: 25-year-old Don White and 20-year-old Graham Ellis, who would go on to become one of the world's leading experts on orcas. The three men would soon find themselves on opposite sides of the killer whale capture and captivity debate. In his series Whale Tale, CBC's Grant Lawrence shares the story of the Pedder Bay 5, how they were herded and captured, and how two of them were released — a mystery on B.C.'s coast that remains to this day.


CTV News
3 hours ago
- CTV News
From ‘giv'er' to ‘freezie': Online dictionary highlights uniquely Canadian terms
Just in time for Canada Day, a team of B.C. researchers has updated an online dictionary of 'Canadianisms' – words and phrases unique to the country ranging from serious to slangy, trivial to tragic, prosaic to political. The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles got its most recent update this year and is now mobile-friendly. In total, the third edition contains more than 14,500 meanings for more than 12,000 words. The dictionary's chief editor Dr. Stefan Dollinger, an English professor at the University of British Columbia, spoke to CTV News about the project Monday. 'It is the treasure trove of things in English that make Canada Canadian,' he explained. 'And what is a Canadianism? A Canadianism is a word, expression or meaning that originates in what is now Canada, or that is, and this is important, distinctively characteristic of Canadian usage.' The 2025 update was the culmination of three years of work, resulting in 137 new additions. The process for adding a word or phrase usually starts with a 'hunch,' followed by a search of the word's usage and evolution through time and a comparison to other forms of English. 'The funny thing is, once you look, you find so many things,' Dollinger said. 'I'm convinced we are just scratching the surface.' Browsing entries in the dictionary does more than inform the reader about turns of phrase preferred by Canucks or words used almost exclusively north of the 49th parallel – it also highlights some of the central themes of Canadian history and identity, both good and bad. 'Universal healthcare' is in the dictionary. So is 'residential school.' Hockey terms feature, as do references to fraught political conflicts and national crises. 'If we celebrate the greatness of Canada then we've got to look at the at the flip side, where colonial structures have been used to suppress people to this very day,' Dollinger said. 2025 additions to the dictionary One category of Canadianism is reserved for words or phrases that originated in the country, including those used to describe significant national events. 'Idle no More,' an Indigenous resistance movement started by four women in Saskatchewan in 2012 is one example. 'Land back' as shorthand for 'a social justice movement to return unceded lands to Indigenous populations' is also a new addition in this category in the most recent version. 'The Two Michaels,' referring to the years-long detention of Canadian citizens Michael Savor and Michael Kovrig in China in what the dictionary calls 'modern-day state-sponsored kidnapping' is also one of the new additions. 'Saskatoon freezing deaths' is another entry in this category, referring to Indigenous men who died after being left 'isolated and exposed to the elements in winter outside of Saskatoon by city police,' the dictionary says. 'Starlight tour,' the phrase that describes this particular practice of police brutality has also been added. Using the terms 'demolition and renoviction' as shorthand for how renters were driven out of their homes by 'largely unchecked profit-maximizing efforts in Canada's urban rental markets' – particularly in the early 2000s – are entries in this category because they're almost exclusively used in this country. On the lighter side, using the term 'Canadian tuxedo' to refer to an all-denim ensemble is another new entry – with the dictionary noting its popularity grew in the 2000s after the release of the movie 'Super Troopers.' The word 'freezie' to describe a popular treat on a hot day is also, apparently, specific to Canada. Referring to making a left turn as 'hanging a Larry' and making a right turn as 'hanging a Roger' also made it in as distinctly Canadian. In the U.S., Dollinger points out, people say, 'hanging a Louie' and 'hanging a Ralph.' Words or phrases that are used more frequently in Canada than in other forms of English also make the cut. 'Heat dome' and 'atmospheric river,' used in reference to recent and catastrophic extreme weather events in British Columbia are new additions in the frequency category. Similarly, calling a wildfire that continues to smoulder under the surface over winter a 'zombie fire' has been added due to a recent uptick in Canadian use. Calling a kilometre a 'klick' is also noted for its outsized use in Canada as is referring to someone as being 'in hospital.' Describing a puddle-soaked foot as a 'booter' (in the Prairie provinces) or a 'soaker' (in Ontario) are also new entries in this category. Other euphemisms added on the basis of frequency include calling whole wheat bread 'brown bread,' describing a wheeled, collapsible cart as a 'bundle buggy,' and referring to a bachelorette party as a 'stagette.' The 'culturally significant' category has entries that run the gamut from terms acknowledging the colonial genocide of Indigenous people to words and phrases commonly heard in arenas. 'Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls' and 'MMIWG' are both entries in this category, referring to the thousands of cases of women disappeared or killed in which 'police are suspected to have been negligent in their investigations.' A similar entry is 'settler-colonial violence' to refer to colonialism and its widespread and enduring harms – including residential schools and their intergenerational impact. In addition to terms that acknowledged some of the darkest chapters of Canadian history, new entries in this category include terms that have emerged as part of a patriotic response to threats from the U.S. president. Espresso mixed with hot water saw a rebrand from Americano to 'Canadiano' and using the hockey phrase 'elbows up' to describe scrappy and distinctly Canadian resistance to being annexed as the 51st state. Saying – or more likely shouting – 'giv'er' to encourage maximum athletic effort or, alternatively, hard partying is another entry in this category. The hockey-specific terms 'deke' and 'rink rat' are also included. Other new additions to the dictionary include iconic Canadian foods – ketchup chips and Nanaimo bars. Nicknames for cities also feature, including 'Raincouver,' 'T-dot,' and 'the Peg.' Non-English words are also among the additions, including 'kokum' and 'mosum' the Cree words for grandmother and grandfather. A quiz where people can test their knowledge of Canadianisms can be found on the UBC website.


CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
Pet abandonments in Quebec used to spike around Canada Day; now they're year-round
Three-year old Rocky, who is available for adoption, finishes play time with Pascale Thibaudeau, an employee at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Montreal, Que., on Friday, June 27, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi MONTREAL — Canada Day has traditionally been synonymous in Montreal with moving day: piles of junk on street corners, sweaty bodies carrying couches up and down the city's winding staircases — and a spike in abandoned animals at shelters. However, Montreal's SPCA is no longer seeing a big jump in animal surrenders around July 1, but that's not because people have stopped giving up their pets before moving homes. The shelter says that compared with years past, fewer residential leases terminate at the end of June; therefore, instead of abandoning their pets all at once, Montrealers area leaving their animals behind all year long. And the number of surrendered pets is increasing, a trend that Laurence Massé, executive director of the Montreal SPCA, blames on the high cost of living and on a lack of pet-friendly rentals. 'We used to see a really, really huge increase, a huge discrepancy between the surrenders in July and all of the other months,' Massé said in a recent interview. 'We don't tend to see the same increase as previously because people move all year long now.' In the first four months of 2025, the Montreal branch of the SPCA reported 1,212 animals surrendered, a 26 per cent increase over the same period in 2024. The SPCA received 3,000 surrendered pets in 2024. Ahead of July 1, the SPCA's Montreal facility was already hosting almost 200 animals: nearly 100 cats, 27 dogs, 39 small animals like rabbits, and 25 wild animals. Massé said her organization is already at 112 per cent capacity for cats and 118 per cent for dogs. 'We're never going to leave an animal behind, so we're going to open our offices, we're going to find a foster family,' Massé said. There had been concerns that animal shelters would see a major spike in abandoned pets after the COVID-19 pandemic, when many people had adopted pets during lockdowns. That anticipated wave of animal surrenders never came, but abandonments have been rising due to a complex combination of factors, Massé said. No-pet clauses in leases are a major problem, Massé said, noting that 52 per cent of Quebec families are pet owners, and 25 per cent of pets are dogs — but just 4.2 per cent of landlords permit dogs in their apartments. 'So it's really, really hard to find a place. So that's one of the biggest factors of surrender.' The SPCA has argued in favour of Civil Code changes to ban no-pet clauses. Opposition party Québec solidaire attempted to bring legislation on the issue in 2023 but failed. Martin Messier of the Quebec Landlords Association says his members would be more open to allowing pets if the Quebec government permitted landlords to collect deposits for potential pet-related damage. 'I think that for a lot of landlords, the problem is never the pet, it's always the pet owner that does not take care properly of their pet.' 'We want to make sure that we have a building in good condition … that we have other tenants that are able to enjoy their unit as well,' Messier said. In 2015 Quebec changed the legal status of animals to declare them sentient beings, not property; but legislators didn't change the rules around no-pet clauses, which remain legal. Lawyer John-Nicolas Morello, head of a non-profit committed to advocating for ethics and animal law, said the SPCA has launched a court challenge against Quebec's rules around no-pet clauses. That case, however, won't be heard for several years. Other jurisdictions have taken the lead on this issue: France and Ontario, for example, have invalidated no-pet clauses in residential leases. Morello said his organization supports the SPCA challenge, and in the meantime has created a manual to help guide tenants during lease negotiations so that landlords feel more comfortable with pets. 'Until that (legal challenge) happens, we thought that it was important to try to develop a tool to allow an informed discussion between the landlord and the tenant,' Morello said. But more and more, Massé noted, the consideration to give up a pet is a financial one. 'In the last two years, we tend to see an increase in surrenders for economic reasons,' Massé said. 'We're living in an inflation context right now and unfortunately people have a hard time affording their own food. So, what about food for the animal?' The SPCA runs a program that offers food, litter and toys for pets whose owners are struggling financially. Aside from pet necessities, it's difficult for families trying to budget for potential veterinary care. 'So behind every surrender, there's (often) a financial reason, unfortunately, and we're seeing more and more this year,' Massé said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 1, 2025. Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press