More hands are needed to care for abandoned and sick animals coming through the door of a foothills animal rescue society.
The High Country SPCA, which operates out of the Diamond Valley Veterinary Clinic in Turner Valley, needs to double its volunteer roster to better care for dogs and cats that are lost, abandoned or require medical care.
“Our motto is no pet will be left behind,” said Susi John, a High Country SPCA volunteer and veterinarian manager and technician at the clinic. “It comes down to money. We only have so much in the emergency fund.”
John said the non-profit organization’s six volunteers aren’t enough to coordinate volunteers, organize fundraisers and update their Facebook account with animals needing homes.
“We cannot update our Facebook page as quickly as we should,” she said. “It would mean a faster turnover for the pets. Instead of having them here maybe two or three weeks at a time we could adopt them out in maybe a week and that would save us money. The few people who are helping they are running low on their batteries.”
With more volunteers, the High Country SPCA could do more fundraising to cover medical costs for abandoned pets requiring treatment or for owners who can’t afford it, said John.
She said the organization could use more foster homes because the space at the clinic is limited and distressful for certain animals, such a feral cat that was at the clinic last month.
“We had a hard time having her in here,” she said, adding the cat and her kittens were turned over to the Heaven Can Wait Animal Rescue Foundation in High River. “It’s an operational hospital and she would freak out every time a dog came in.”
To help the SPCA out, Turner Valley’s Pamela Bruinsma took in two cats and two dogs temporarily over the last six months.
“They come and go really quick,” she said, adding one cat was in her home for a month while the others were there for just two weeks.
The last animal she housed was a one-year-old dog that was found last month. When the SPCA reached the owners they said she was too much of a handful and couldn’t take her back, said Bruinsma.
“She hadn’t had any training,” she said. “She wasn’t even house broken. She was really smart and eager to learn and in a week I had taught her a lot.”
Bruinsma finds these circumstances sad.
“I wish that people would not get a pet if you’re not willing to put in the work,” she said. “Of course I don’t know the circumstances and try not to judge.”
While Bruinsma loves animals, she’s not yet ready to provide a permanent home to a dog or cat due to her busy life, but is glad to do it temporarily.
“It’s a nice way to give back and get the love of an animal without having to commit,” she said, adding her two young children enjoy the benefits. “The three-year-old is starting to understand responsibility. It’s good to teach her that we’re helping these animals.”
Bruinsma said she’s also glad to help an organization that does so much for pets.
“They do a lot of pro bono work with these animals where they are covering the medical costs and hours and not taking any profit away from it,” she said. “Without them operating out here a lot of those animals would get abandoned.”
John said people need to understand the responsibility of having a pet.
Once a month they have pet owners unable to pay their vet bills. More than half of the pets they see are not spayed or neutered, she added.
“It makes absolutely no sense to me they do not think about the costs and what comes down the road and how long of a commitment it is,” she said.
For instance, an older dog whose dental needs are ignored could result in an infection in the mouth that spreads to the dog’s entire system, said John.
“Then they say, ‘It costs too much, I can’t do this,’” she said. “If they took their pets for their annual shots and exam those things can be addressed right away before it even becomes a big problem. Those kinds of things wouldn’t need to happen.”
John said animals deserve the best care possible.
“Some people come in and say, ‘It’s just a barn cat’ and they don’t want to spend any money on it,” she said. “They deserve to be looked after, they deserve a really good diet, they deserve to see a vet once a year.”
John said she’s come across pet owners who have the mentality that they gave an animal a home so someone else should pay the veterinary costs.
She said this happens more frequently with people who pay nothing or very little for their pets.
“Down the road those pets end up in the system again,” he said.
“They’re going to be surrendered somewhere. It doesn’t end.”
To become a volunteer for the High Country SPCA contact Susi John at [email protected] or post a message on their Facebook account.
