Tara MacLean, who works for the society, said the money comes at a great time as donations have been down due to the pandemic. She wasn’t sure if someone nominated them or if the company running the contest, Nutram Pet Products, simply included all rescues across Canada.
“Someone might have nominated us, I’m not sure, but they notified us that we were part of (it) and what the rules were for the contest and what we had to do in order to get the donation,” she said.
MacLean added that even if donations were low, the number of requests to foster doubled and SCARS even had to turn down people because they ran out of dogs, a rare occurrence partially due to the fact could not enter areas like Calling Lake which was on a complete lock down.
“People were capitalizing on the opportunity, like we're home or we have some time, so let's adopt a dog or we had like 100 per cent increase in requests to foster because people were at home, and they kind of knew if life goes back to normal (they’re) going to be too busy for a dog, but (they) can maybe help one out now.”
SCARS and one other rescue in Alberta each were voted into the top 10 MacLean mentioned, with SCARS ending up in fifth. Due to a glitch that allowed multiple votes in a day, the final numbers were adjusted at the end of the contest.
“I think when it ended, when all was said and done, we had like 17,000 votes, and then it actually dropped down to 15,000. So, 2,000 of the votes were not able to account; they were doubled up or whatever,” she said. “We were second when it when the deadline hit, and then we dropped down to fifth when they actually calculated the numbers.”
From the many rescues listed in the contest people were able to vote until May 31. The top 10 were then awarded $5,000 each from the Ontario-based Canadian company.
“During COVID obviously we have limited donations; our donations are not anywhere near where they used to be,” MacLean said. “So, I would imagine we are going to set it aside for our spay-neuter-return program. But at this point in time, it's a little too early to say that it won't just become part of the general funds for vet care and operations just because our donations are so low.”
Heather Stocking, TownandCountryToday.com
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