Twenty-one golden retrievers, including 17 puppies, are under B.C. SPCA's after a Quesnel breeder turned them in.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/B.C. SPCA

Despite concerns over the past few years, the B.C. SPCA hasn't seen an influx of animals from pandemic pet owners. Instead, shelters are being filled by dogs seized from overburdened breeders.

The agency has been getting a growing volume of complaints about breeders across the province starting in November. The waning demand for animals since the COVID boom in 2020 leaves them with more than they can handle, according to Eileen Drever of the B.C. SPCA.

According to a B.C. SPCA news release, it's led to a "record number" of dog intakes at SPCA shelters and most recently a half-off adoptions promotion. 

READ MORE: Breeder gives up 21 golden retriever pups to B.C. SPCA

"These dogs were all used to make money. Now that the market has dropped, there's an overabundance of puppies," Drever said.

The Quesnel SPCA recently took in 21 young golden retrievers, for example. In that case, the breeder reached out for help because they were overwhelmed and couldn't sell the dogs. Some of them are up to six months old and no longer considered puppies.

In 42 years with the B.C. SPCA, Drever said she's never seen a breeder give up dogs like this.

The pandemic puppy demand has dropped and at six months old dogs are getting closer to their adult size and personalities, past their expiry date to be sold as puppies. Drever acknowledged a breeder like the one in Quesnel can find their dogs are much harder to sell once they've grown past puppy size, especially if they haven't been trained.

"They're not as cute and cuddly, right? You've just got an unmanageable dog that needs a lot of work," Drever said. "That puppy needs manners, needs to be housebroken, it needs all of these things. And a lot of people have blinders on when they're just looking at cute puppies."

READ MORE: 'Very remorseful': Clearwater man who had 13 dogs seized says he didn't neglect them

Dog breeding is a largely unregulated industry with most enforcement through animal cruelty laws -- and enforcement was on the rise in the latter days of the pandemic.

"It's heartbreaking that these individuals are treating these animals as a commodity, and it's all for profit," she said. "So now this is the fallout. We have a few investigations that will probably end up in the execution of warrants and we'll end up with more puppies."

She said she saw crossbred puppies sold for prices as high of $3,000 to $5,000 during the height of the pandemic — absurd prices.

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Drever didn't say how many other investigations are ongoing, but she did say there's an even spread across the province.

Shelters across Canada and the U.S. anticipated new pet owners would start returning their pets as health restrictions waned and workers went back to their offices.

One shelter in Merritt said that began to happen in 2021, but the B.C. SPCA says it never did see the influx anywhere in the province.

While pet owners appear to have largely kept their animals, it's the unregulated breeders, Drever said, that are the source of the new influx.

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