Pets will once again be housed in the old Grande Prairie SPCA. Bandaged Paws Animal Rescue will be running a safe haven facility, designed to house animals while they are waiting for foster homes, out of the old location.
Bandaged Paws is a home-based rescue meaning animals are picked up and put directly into foster care. If a temporary home wasn’t found, the rescue couldn’t take them. President Natasha Arsenault says this brick and mortar building will help eliminate having to turn anyone down.
“It’s going to be a better way for us to help the community faster and more frequently… There is an overwhelming demand in Grande Prairie for help, we constantly are turning away animals. It’s going to allow us to be bigger and better.”
Arsenault says they picked up the keys to the building attached to the county’s Regional Animal Care Facility on May 24th. They will be leasing it from the Edmonton Humane Society who has owned that half of the building since the local humane society closed in May 2016 after it was $250,000 in debt.
Because the building has sat empty since then, Arsenault says there’s still work that needs to be done before they can fully move in.
“It hasn’t been lived in for three years so there’s lots of cleaning to do, things we’re going to change to better suit our organization… Right now we’re starting to move animals in on an as needed, kind of emergency basis.”
If everything goes well, Arsenault hopes to have everything up and running in a month or so.