Representatives of the Northern Animals Rescue and Sanctuary and the City of Temiskaming Shores are meeting to discuss the support the rescue centre needs.
Last week representatives of the centre went online to highlight that rent for their building loomed and they did not have the funds. They expressed the view that closure was near.
See: Animal sanctuary fears closure is near
The building houses about 100 dogs and cats at any time.
Jennifer MacKewn, the founder of the not-for-profit centre, was more optimistic by this week after city representatives reached out to her for a meeting to discuss the situation.
Her hope is that the meeting will reveal a way the city can help the centre, and come up with a model the sanctuary can take to other municipalities across the district to also gain their financial support.
Funding support is vital, she explained.
"We cannot sustain being animal control for all the towns and the city and every community in the area," she said in an interview at the shelter on August 12.
The rescue centre has taken in dogs and cats from Temagami to the north of Englehart. Animals are also coming from Cobalt, even though it has an animal control service in the town, she said.
There have been times when she has been called late at night to open the building to accept a stray animal, she related.
The animal rescue centre works in cooperation with the Kirkland Lake animal shelter, depending on the space each has available.
DISEASE IS A CONCERN
The spread of disease among the animals is a driving concern, and for that reason, any animals that come into the care of the animal shelter are dewormed and de-flead and then put into the queue for vaccinations and neutering or spaying, she explained.
Canine parvovirus is present in the district, she noted, and is easily spread among dogs where it has a very high mortality rate.
Cats could also be carrying feline infection peritonitis or the very contagious and potentially fatal feline panleukopenia virus.
"We don't know if (new animals have) ever been vaccinated. We don't know if they carry a disease," MacKewn explained.
"Nobody pays us," she said. "We're all volunteers."
But the rescue centre is now full, she said.
To meet their needs they need money, manpower and people who can do maintenance to repair things the animals wreck. More volunteers are particularly needed to clean up after the dogs and to walk them, she noted. They also need someone who could undertake the paperwork needed to set up a charity.
BUILDING COSTS
While the building is rented, the Northern Animals Rescue and Sanctuary has renovated it at a cost of $200,000, she related. The building was gutted and a local company installed what was needed, and has been being repaid in instalments, with a very high amount still remaining, she outlined.
"They are very good to us by allowing us to make the payments," she said.
Air conditioning was just installed in the building at a cost of $20,000.
Gas and hydro are paid monthly and incoming bills for heat, hydro, rent, and veterinary bills are always in the four-digit range, she also pointed out.
Spay and neuter runs are carried out when ten dogs and four cats are driven down to North Bay about every two weeks, she said. They go when they have money in the bank to pay the veterinarian bill, she said.
"Our van is on its last leg and we're looking to buy a new one because we almost have 400,000 kilometres on it," she said.
IN AND OUT
Right now they have 80 dogs and cats waiting to be neutered or spayed.
The Northern Animals Rescue and Sanctuary also works with the Temiskaming Veterinary Services and the Animal Hospital, MacKewn said. Veterinarians are needed to give vaccines, although veterinary technicians can give booster shots.
MacKewn said about 80 per cent of the animals that come in are adopted.
Fosters are needed for the animals.
MacKewn is passionate about the need to ensure "backyard breeders and puppy mills" are being inspected, which she said they are supposed to be.
There are times when the litters from those locations are being surrendered to the centre because homes can't be found for them, she said.
The rescue centre is assisting some First Nation reserves to get their animal populations under control, she noted.
"Some reserves are trying to get their animal problem under control. We will help them because they're trying to make a difference."
Advocates for Northern Animals in Kirkland Lake is also trying to help at the reserves, she added.
Darlene Wroe is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with the Temiskaming Speaker. LJI is funded by the Government of Canada.
