LAC LA BICHE - The Lac La Biche Regional Humane Society (LLBRHS) received several thousand dollars in new funding to start the year, thanks to a worldwide awareness campaign created following the death of actress and animal advocate Betty White.
After the famed Golden Girls actress, celebrity and comedian passed away on Dec. 31, just a few days shy of her 100th birthday, an online social media campaign encouraging individuals around the world to donate to animal shelters. The campaign went went viral. In less than a week, shelters around the world were sharing in the millions of dollars raised through donations
“Our total was around $6,000 ... I don’t even know who started the Betty White Challenge but it spread across the internet so quickly…we are a small shelter so $6,000 for us is crazy and will really help us out,” said the humane society’s Melinda Sorenson. “We had all sorts of donors online, but most of it was individuals donating.”
And for the local Lac La Biche animal shelter, that extra support will go a long way to helping with increased demands on their services.
Some of the funds, says Sorensen, will go to the purchase of indoor kennels they have been saving up for.
“The kennels will have a separate litter chamber and sleeping area so that their beds won’t be covered in their litter. It will be cleaner, easier to sanitize and they’ll lock properly. Then the kennels we currently have will go into the adoption room so we can have more animals in the shelter at once,” she said.
Abused and abandoned
The need for extra space at the shelter is a daily concern as the number of animals being dropped off has seen a sharp increase over the year. An unfortunate part of that growing statistic is the growing amount of animals that have been mistreated or that have been abandoned in harsh winter elements.
Instances of grotesque animal abuse continue to be huge issue at the shelter, especially with cats that come through the vet clinic, said Jodymae Brown, a vet clinic employee and a former humane society member.
“It happened a few times when I worked at the humane society. I remember one young woman rushing in because the car in front of her threw a cat out the window,” she said, shaking her head as she admits that people throwing cats out of moving vehicles “is common—It happens more often than you would imagine.”
She said the instances of abuse are shocking.
“There are cats that come in hurt, with busted-up faces and their teeth are broken…and dogs get dropped off in the bush—it's devastating,” said Brown, who doesn’t understand why pet owners don’t simply take unwanted animals to the shelter instead of injuring and abandoning them. “The humane society does a fantastic job of trying to take care of everything. I wish that people would just drop them off at the shelter…I just don't understand why they do it, we have a humane society. It's so cruel.”
Fortunately, good Samaritans that bring in these animals allow the shelter staff to rehabilitate them, but stopping the issue is very difficult since staff encounter the situation after the damage is done, said Sorenson.
A recent case of mistreatment saw a concerned resident bring in a cat they had found in their neighbourhood.
“Flopsy was rescued from someone who wasn’t giving him food or water, he was frozen, he lost most of his ear and a little chunk of the other ear. We gave him fluids for a week and a half straight—but his body would just suck them up,” Sorenson said. “Normally when you give them fluids their body slowly absorbs the fluids, but you could give 50cc’s of fluid at once and you couldn’t even tell because he would just absorb it so quickly.”
After two weeks of intensive treatment and care at the shelter, the cat began a recovery. Flopsy’s journey continues as one of the shelters many current residents.
While Flopsy at one point may have been someone's pet, the condition he was found in would suggest the owners aren’t prepared to care for him, said Sorenson.
“We posted him as a stray and if the owners claim it OK, if not, then he will go up for adoption…and he’s probably better off that way.”
Continued support
With such an unexpected busy season of animals being brought into the facility daily and instances of animal abuse, now more than ever, support, adopting and fostering a pet is needed, she said
“Usually right now is our quiet season but it’s not slowing down, we seem to be busy all the time…any support is always welcome and needed.”
For more information on how to adopt, donate to the society or become foster a pet family, visit www.llbrhs.com.
With files from Rob McKinley
