(File photo/northeastNOW staff)

By Ben Tompkins

NESPCA

North East SPCA on the verge of shutting down

Jul 11, 2022 | 5:00 PM

The North East SPCA says it is close to closing its doors, as they are surviving paycheck to paycheck.

Without an increase in fundraising, the shelter is all but certain to shut down and not re-open for roughly 6-12 months.

According to Acting Chair Marianthe Strydom, they are doing everything they can to prevent this, however, they will need more people to help if they are to continue.

“We have a serious lack of volunteers, we don’t have board members, we have only about four that need to do the work of 14 board members. We really need people to come on the board to help us fundraise, to help us look at sponsors and to help us look at fosters. There are so many jobs and I’m sure there’s a job for everyone and more people make less work.”

The SPCA, which opened roughly five months before COVID began, originally had a financial cushion, however, due to the pandemic that cushion is gone and they are far from rebuilding it.

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Strydom also told northeastNOW, should the shelter end up closing, they will need some time to get back to a ‘comfortable position.’

And while it is currently the middle of summer, Strydom added how in the event they can’t stay open, they would miss the most important time of the year.

“We’ve already put a stop on surrenders, we haven’t taken surrenders for a while now. We can’t do that… There’s no way we can take in animals and then also try and find homes for them and find fosters for them. We’ll just have to deal with the animals that we have in the shelter at the moment and as we said, winter is coming, so we want to be able to take care of the animals in winter, which is a tough time for them.”

Also, with the raising costs of everything in the world today, Strydom mentioned how their budget three years ago isn’t remotely close to what it is today and that they’ve had to cut their costs down to the bone.

Thankfully, she also added how people around the community have been donating as much as they can, including veterinarians in their own way.

“The vets are really working hard and trying to give us the best deals that can but vet costs are skyrocketing. People can’t have their animals spayed and neutered and then there’s an overpopulation of stray animals, so that also impacts us because our vet bills are some of our highest expenses every month. Just getting everyone spayed and neutered and have their immunizations checked. Animals come in, not always in a very healthy state of being, so we need to take them to the vet. All our costs have definitely gone up.”

Strydom said now, however, the call is on all of northeast Saskatchewan.

Those wanting to donate their time or funds to the shelter can visit the North East SPCA website to find donation and volunteer forms.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8