Rescue Journal

grhh..i woke up all teary this morning..

Carol  ·  Nov. 18, 2009

PMSing, not enough sleep (felix had a tough night settling last night...he finally puked around 2:30 and then went to sleep)...and worrying about 4lane (who is back in my bedroom...happy again and too unsteady on his feet to cause too much trouble.)

on one of my midnight wanderings, i walked around adjusting blankets and beds, mopping up the odd puddle and picking up poop....and i came to cole and doris and jewel and felix and i thought...am i doing you guys any favor? should i just let you go before you hit that last big wall? should i end it for you when you still have good days?

i don't know. i am not all that fond of my doubting and introspective days..it just makes me all sad and confused til i get past it all again.

very sad plea for help from the Northwest territories today..i will see if i can cut and paste it here...probably not, but i will give it a try.

Hello,

My name is Sarah Hunt and I am the President of the Northwest Territories Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). I am contacting you all in the hopes that someone can help us out, as we are in an extremely desperate situation and need to turn to some of our fellow shelters and supporters to ask for your help.

The NWT SPCA operates on a fully volunteer-basis, do not have a consistent source of funding, and do not even own our own shelter. We do have a local shelter operated by the local veterinary clinic, however the shelter is filled to the brim with homeless animals already, and there is no room to fit any more animals. This creates many barriers and limitations for us as to what we can do for our homeless, neglected and abandoned pets. Our mission is to help animals around the entire Territory, but with our limited resources, and the desperate situation that exists in the north which includes many instances of neglect, abuse and irresponsible owners, we are realizing very quickly that we cannot do it on our own and need as much help from other like-minded and common interest organizations as you are willing to give.

We get cries and pleas for help from residents and leaders in our rural communities every, single day, and it kills us to tell them that we don't have the capacity to help them save the animals in their communities. Most recently (today actually), we received a call from the Band Manager in on of our rural communities Lutsel K'e. He indicated that there are 50-70 dogs running loose in the community, and that they may have no other choice than to shoot them if we can't help them soon. Most of these dogs are very friendly animals, and in some cases are even pets....but they are not being cared for properly, and are let loose to roam the streets 24/7. It is phone calls like this that we dread, but that are all too common. We have also over this past week been recieiving many phone calls from concerned residents in another community Behchoko, indicating that there are numerous young puppies who have been either abandoned and cast out of homes, or who have never had homes to begin with. They are left outside to fend for themselves in the freezing temperatures (of which we are seeing more recently dipping down to the -20's, and will continue to drop to -30's and -40's over the next few months). These puppies will not survive long, are helpless, and are desperate for shelter, warmth, and food. We wish that we could rescue every single one of them, but the reality is that we just don't have the capacity, resources, or even shelter to do so, and neither do the communities.

Some of these northern communities have even introduced laws that allows them to shoot any stray dog that they see! Although we are making efforts to address these much bigger issues by lobbying government, we need some immediate solutions in the interim to save some of these helpless animals. None of these animals deserve to suffer as they do, and we want to help them....we need to help them. The Edmonton Humane Society has graciously indicated that we could send some younger puppies down to them, and we are ever grateful for their support. However, we still have hundreds of dogs that need rescuing; the majority of which will surely be shot over the coming weeks if we do not get them out. It is a sad reality here, but we cannot give up trying to save as many as we can.

I am hoping that by sending this plea for help out to our neighboring province's shelters and rescue organizations, we may be able to develp some strong, long-lasting relationships and support networks, save our beautiful companions, and allow them a second chance to have the lives that they deserve.

I appreciate your support and time. If any of you can help us out by opening up your shelters to our dogs, please contact me. You can reach me at 867-445-3411 or at this email address nwtspcaprez@hotmail.com.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sarah Hunt

President, NWT SPCA


now there is a sad and desperate plea for first thing this morning...maybe when we have a bit of room we can offer some space to some of the seniors up there.

Comments

Cheryl

This is getting alot of attention. Media is beoming involved in several provinces so let us hope the message is there that help is needed...I wouldn't worry about crossposting as alot of folks are doing so.Having this on your blog is a huge help...

Hillevi

I forwarded the request to Best Friends. I don't know if they are able to help but at least they will hopefully be aware of the situation. What about Facebook, MySpace, and any other networking sites to get the word out? What about the SPCA here in the States?

Hillevi

Carol, Is this something that Best Friends may be able to help out with? Do you know who to make aware of this at Best Friends?

Carol

cross posting is beyond me tracey..cut and pasting still needed renee to walk me thru it cuz the first time i tried, it didn't work.
but i am sure that if anyone can cross post..it would be greatly appreciated by our northern rescue folks.

Tracey

If the dogs are in such desperate states, I wonder how the cats fare... not well I bet.

Good for them for reaching out and trying to do something about it and not accepting the status quo. Good for them for working and fighting for something better for these animals.

Carol, perhaps you could post this elsewhere (Rescue Boards etc.) with their permission just in case there are other groups who are able to help.