Uko Akpanuko
Daily Herald
The Prince Albert SPCA faced a shortage of dog and cat food recently, but support from Prince Albert and beyond has helped them keep every animal fed.
The SPCA raised concerns about the shortage of food in a Facebook post made Nov. 27. The post said the organizations shelves were “nearly empty” with only one bag of dog food and three bags of cat food left.
“It’s been a little bit hard for us to keep on top of our food supply, so we put a post out there on social media just letting everybody know that we are low on food and really can use some help,” said Ashlee Bober, the Manager of Operations for the Prince Albert SPCA. “We have been blown away with how much support that we have received from the community, from individuals to businesses, it has just been absolutely incredible and within a couple of days we have had quite a pile of dog food and cat food donated.”
Bober said there are a number of reasons for the food shortage. The shelter is seeing dogs and cat stay at the shelter for longer periods of time before they are adopted, meaning they consume more food before finding a home.
Donations have also slowed down, something Bober said could be caused by the rising cost of living.
The organization is still hoping for a few more donations of food, or gift cards to pet stores that can be used on food.
“We had a good number of bags donated but we are still going through it very quickly,” she said. “It looks like we have quite a pile right now but that pile starts getting smaller and smaller every day, so we want to make sure that we have enough food to stay on top of that for the needs of the animals and to keep a good supply here.”
Donations have been coming in to support the Prince Albert SPCA from as far away as Ireland. Bober said the group appreciates everyone that has made a sacrifice to ensure that the animals stay fed, loved, healthy and sheltered.
“Within the first 24 hours we have roughly around $13,000 that was donated,” Bober said. “It was incredible. We had one generous lady who donated $1000 herself. We’ve had a couple businesses donate, so we were able to go out to the pet stores and buy a bunch of food, fill up our van, and add to the pile of food that was donated in kind…. It has just been absolutely incredible to see the generosity of our community.”
Apart from food, SPCA also attends to the medical needs of the animals in their custody and ensures the animals are well cared for.
Bober also encouraged people to adopt the animals and give them a good forever after as that will help create space for more animals to be taken into the home.
Anyone looking to donate can bring unopened or gently opened bags of dog or cat food to the SPCA shelter between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. Residents can also e-transfer donations to donations.paspca@gmail.com, or mail donations to P.O. Box 1832, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.
The SPCA has asked donator to not donate Beneful to Special Kitty brands of food.
–with files from Jason Kerr/Daily Herald
