The Bandaged Paws Animal Rescue Association in Grande Prairie is experiencing restricted storage space heading into the new year as renovations are set to begin on Bandaged Paws’ food storage area.
The facility, which is owned by the City and County, is shared between Bandaged Paws and the regional pound and Bandaged Paws Executive Director Natasha Arsenault says the garage serves as an important space saver for the association.
“When the City and County bought the building, they had plans to renovate the space – into more of a reception area I believe, and we currently have a lot of our food donations stored there,” she says. “A lot of those items will need to be moved and won’t be able to go back into that space.”
According to Arsenault, Bandaged Paws currently houses between 150 and 200 animals, and without proper storage space food will need to be stored in kennels, reducing the number of animals they will have the capacity for.
“All of our rooms in our office are used for various storage, we only have one office dedicated for staff, everything else is related to animal-related purposes.”
“Having the food donations that we do allows us to feed animals that have special food requirements and feed the massive amount of animals that we do have, we really do require that much space to store food that’s constantly rotating.”
As a result, Arsenault says the facility requires storage space elsewhere, but in the meantime, efforts are currently underway to transition several dog kennels into food storage areas.
“The dog kennels that we will be moving it to don’t have shelving so that’s a need,” she says. “So we are seeking out some sort of alternative, but having food donations we need them in a temperature-controlled environment.”
Despite the current space limitations, Arsenault adds donations are still welcome at this time as they are “what keeps the facility running.” Additionally, Arsenault says the Association when the time comes to move the 10,000 lbs of food, volunteers will be greatly appreciated.