Border Paws Animal Shelter is ringing in another year of helping animals as they prepare to offer new services.
Read more: Giants secure second-round steal in Brady Leinenweber
Amanda Williams, Border Paws president, presented to Lloydminster council on May 11 with an update on the organization’s 2025 operations.
The shelter experienced a high volume of animal intakes, the majority of which were strays from within the city.
“Last year, Border Paws admitted a total of 502 animals. We admitted 306 strays from the city, accounting for 61 per cent of all animals taken in during 2025,” Williams said, noting 195 of those were cats, 111 were dogs.
Adoptions saw a spike in 2025, something Williams credits to the dedication of staff and success of their outreach efforts.
“In 2025, we completed 337 adoptions, representing a 10 per cent increase over 2024,” she said. “All adoptable animals were also spayed or neutered prior to adoption, as part of our ongoing commitment to responsible pet ownership and long-term population management.”
After reuniting 128 pets with their owners last year, the shelter continues to enforce a standard 72-hour holding period to allow stray reclamation. However, Williams mentioned that these hold times are flexible based on individual circumstances.
They’ve also continued their Super Puppy Program, which focuses on early socialization, confidence building, handling and training for puppies in the care of the shelter.
The program helps prepare puppies for successful transitions into adoptive homes, improving long-term placement success.
“A generous donor purchased a canine slat mill for the shelter to support enrichment, exercise and behavioural development for dogs in our care,” she said.
A slat mill is a non-motorized treadmill that allows dogs to run at their own pace.
While the year had some highs with adoption, it wasn’t without challenges.
“The high volume of strays from Lloydminster and surrounding municipalities combined with rising requests for owner surrenders continues to strain our capacity,” said Williams.
Some operation challenges they face include intake volume, holding periods, medical treatment as some animals arrive with complex medical needs, rising costs and community support services.
Border Paws also continued its community involvement.
“Border Paws delivered several important community programs throughout 2025, including our outreach visits with animals to seniors’ facilities across Lloydminster, adoption events in partnership with local businesses, school presentations focused on responsible pet ownership and advanced training programs for adoptable dogs to improve placement success,” she said.
Initiatives remain possible through grants, donations and in-kind donations and ongoing support of foster homes and volunteers.
Williams also broke down the funding sources: donations made up the largest portion at 45 per cent, followed by grants at 20 per cent, adoptions at 14 per cent, and poundkeeper services at 12 per cent. Sponsorships accounted for eight per cent, while reclaim fees brought in one per cent.
“Despite this diversification, Border Paws ended 2025 with an operating deficit of approximately $85K,” she said. “This shortfall reflects the gap between actual operation costs and available revenue, driven largely by inflationary increases across veterinary care, utility supplies and daily operational costs.”
While they still face a deficit, it has gone down since 2024.
“In 2024, our deficit was $90K, so our deficit has gone down,” she said.
One of the difficulties for Border Paws was a loss of municipal support. Williams noted the shelter offers poundkeeper and sheltering services to surrounding municipalities, but a few re-evaluated the partnership after Border Paws implemented what she called necessary fee adjustments to reflect rising costs.
“As a result, some municipalities re-evaluated or did not renew their service agreements,” she said.
Williams explained the amount of lost revenue due to the loss of the contracts was substantial.
“We were successful in getting all of the contracts we had in previous years before our fee adjustments, we probably lost out on $50K to $80K,” she said.
She also hinted at the expansion of services in the future as they now occupy the entirety of their building.
“We occupy two thirds of our building. We did have a tenant in there who was in there prior to us purchasing the building. They vacated at the end of February,” said Williams. “Border Paws is looking at adding additional services to help increase our revenue streams on the other side where we did have the tenant.”
She said that’s something they’re looking at starting in 2026 but offered no specifics.
Read more: HRHS students win 2026 Saskatchewan youth video contest
