WESTLOCK - After a massive intake of 500 animals in September and October, Second Chance Animal Rescue Society (SCARS) is back on its feet and opened its doors again last week.
The Edmonton and Athabasca-based society set a fundraising goal of $500,000 and raised $300,000 already, which allowed them to start the animal intake again after closing for two and a half weeks.
“It’s amazing. It’s truly humbling to see that amount of money come in,” said Terra MacLean, training coordinator with SCARS.
Some of the animals have been adopted, others are still in care until they’re old enough to be adopted.
“Our adoption has been amazing through this entire process, so we are still adopting them quite successfully,” MacLean said. “It’s just our adoption fees don’t cover all the medical costs associated with them.”
They’re still investigating the reasons for that intake increase over the fall. Most animals were strays, and some of the cats came from a “hoarding situation.”
Although MacLean doesn’t think COVID-19 was the reason for the intake, the pandemic does mean that animals who were previously overlooked now get adopted.
“In previous years, health issues and usually behaviour issues slow an animal’s adoptability, so they’ll stay in care longer, depending on what their issues are. However, with COVID and people having more time to dedicate to their pets, we’ve actually seen an increase in both,” MacLean said.
“More people are willing to take on, as an example, diabetic cats, because they’re home more frequently to give it insulin injections. More people are willing to take on a dog with behaviour issues because they’ve got more time to dedicate to training.”
It’s not typical, but it’s also not a typical time.
“You wouldn’t think a pandemic would be the silver lining. Usually, when you’re in animal rescue, you can kind of get a bit disheartened, because as per usual, the cutest ones, the fuzziest ones, the youngest ones get adopted quickly and the other ones tend to get overlooked a bit,” she said.
“With COVID, no animal gets overlooked now.”
The 500-animal intake’s impact on their finances and the donation that followed are both causing a reevaluation of how things are done at SCARS.
SCARS has always operated on ‘What the animals need, the animals get’ and if that dents our savings, that dents our savings. So we’ve never had a bulk chunk of money to actually come up with a sustainable plan. We’re always playing catch-up, we’re always trying to stay ahead, and generally speaking we’re staying above water but very rarely are we ahead,” MacLean said.
“We have a team right now, and we’ve actually involved the University of Alberta, looking into what’s the most efficient bang for our buck. If we make our $500,000 goal, which I certainly hope we will, we’re going to change how we intake and vet our animals in order to reduce our overhead costs in order to make our adoption fees almost a source of revenue. That will make us far more sustainable going into the future.”
Donations can be made online via the SCARS website, or in-person at the Athabasca County intake site. Visits there have to be booked ahead of time. SCARS is also open to business donations or talks about the rescue.
They cover Westlock and Athabasca, and areas north of here from Buffalo Lake, Lac la Biche, Wabasca, and Calling Lake.
