By Sarah Rae

Humane Society finds animals frozen to death outside shelter doors

Dec 29, 2016 | 11:00 AM

After finding a frozen bird and kitten outside their doors, the Battlefords Humane Society is urging residents not to leave animals out in the cold.

Michelle Spark, the shelter coordinator, said she found the animals frozen to death outside when she arrived at work Tuesday morning, and there were prints showing they were alive when they got there.

“It was traumatizing,” she said. “We always come to work with the mindset of ‘is there going to be something at our front door when we get there?’ but when it does happen it just really sucks.”

She said she doesn’t know if the animals were dropped off there or if they were strays that wandered to the building, but she wants to remind residents that there are better options than leaving an animal outside or dumping it at the shelter.

“The last thing we want to see is animals to be dumped off at the landfill or in ditches or wherever,” she said. “Yes, we’re full all the time. Yes, we’re overloaded. But we don’t want to see animals suffer, so call us.”

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Outside of the shelter’s regular hours, North Battleford residents can call bylaw officers to pick an animal up any time of day to let into the shelter. Although officers won’t pick up an animal outside the city, they may be willing to meet someone at the shelter to let the animal inside. In Battleford, they can call town hall during office hours to arrange an animal to be picked up. Spark stressed the shelter does not have its own staff to go out and pick up an animal.

If for some reason a person can’t arrange for the animal to be safely picked up and taken to the shelter, Spark said they ask people to please find a way to house the animal just overnight until it can be brought to the shelter when it opens.

If an animal is injured, Lakeland Veterinary has an emergency services line people can call and the animal will be taken care of, and if it’s a stray, transported to the shelter after.

Spark said if there’s no way a person can house the animal or get it picked up, as a last resort she suggested turning to social media, where people may offer to take care of an animal overnight before it can be taken to a shelter.

She said despite the Humane Society’s efforts to educate the public about what to do with stray animals or unwanted pets, and has the bylaw number on their phone message and displayed outside the shelter, staff members still often see animals left outside shelter doors.

Regardless of the situation, Spark said dumping an animal outside at the shelter overnight or elsewhere, like the landfill, is the worst possible solution. She said staff members are seeing an increasing amount of animals found at the landfill, including a cat and two puppies just in the last month. Although those three animals are doing well, shelter staff is not always fortunate enough to find them in time.

Sarah Rae is a reporter for battlefordsNOW. She can be reached at Sarah.Rae@jpbg.ca or tweet her @sarahjeanrae.