If you’re considering adding a pet to your family this Christmas, you’re being advised to wait until after the holidays.

Oswald Sawh (saw), Board Chair for the Thompson Regional Humane Society shares their policy for pet adoptions around Christmas.

“We’ve had a practice in the last 3 or 4 years where we do not have adoptions out between two weeks prior and two weeks after Christmas. We always say that the adoption of an animal is a family decision. That’s the best way to ensure that the animal has found a permanent home.”  

Sawh says their practice is to have animals taken to a potential owner’s home for a trial period to see if they are a good fit with children and other pets in the home.

He went on to say that it can be difficult for animals if they are returned after a while and that children can also be impacted if they’ve bonded with the pet.

For more on the Thompson Regional Humane Society, catch Thompson Today this afternoon at 12:40 and 5:10.