Bandaged Paws Animal Rescue Association in Grande Prairie is in need of financial support and supplies, as intake requests remain high volume.
Executive Director Natasha Arsenault says the animal shelter’s monthly expenses are about $25,000 a month for animal-related expenses alone. That doesn’t include operational costs and staffing expenses.
“The pandemic has been hard on everybody, including us. We’ve seen a decrease in our ability to hold fundraisers, as well as a decrease in donations this year because everybody is struggling right now,” she says. “What has made things so challenging for us is that while we aren’t seeing the kind of support we normally would, our intake requests have not changed. We still have a high volume of animals needing to come in, so over a month ago we did reduce our staffing to essentially a skeleton crew.”
Arsenault says the animal shelter is looking for assistance in any way possible, including taking on volunteers. They are looking for volunteers as soon as possible and want to ensure it can be done in a safe way. An announcement will be made soon on the Bandaged Paws website, allowing people to sign up to help out, and the different responsibilities that people would be able to take on.
“Our biggest need is still adoptions and we have to find homes for the animals here as soon as possible. Any sort of donations are appreciated, including monetary donations, and supplies such as pellet cat litter, kitten food, and toys,” she says.
The animal rescue facility really helps them take on more medical cases and harder cases. Arsenault adds that they’d like to be able to run again at full capacity, but they will require some assistance from the Grande Prairie community to do so.
“We’ve had a lot of support from the community through the pandemic and we are extremely grateful for that. It’s amazing to see Grande Prairie rally around us and we had a really great turnout with our online auction this past weekend,” Arsenault says. “It’s a really stressful time for us, especially with winter on the way, not being able to help all the animals that need our services.”
For more information and other ways to help out the animal rescue service, visit this link.