Assistant Manager Jennifer Kaye shown Monday with a purebred English Mastiff called Roman. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Animal welfare

Humane society in need of pet food, supplies

Jul 29, 2019 | 5:33 PM

Please feed the animals.

The Battlefords Humane Society is encouraging people to donate pet food for its dogs and cats as it is short on supplies.

The society currently has 28 dogs and 69 cats in its care.

“The Battlefords Humane Society runs strictly on donations,” Assistant Manager Jennifer Kaye said. “Everything we feed to the animals here at the shelter, or litter products or toys [received] is all donated by the public.”

With more animals giving birth at this time of the year, Kaye said spring and summer are usually the shelter’s busiest periods. More pets are dropped off, so the need is significant.

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More animals also tend to roam during the warmer weather so there are more strays coming through the shelter’s doors.

“Because we run on donations, sometimes we have enough [food and supplies], and enough donations come in,” Kaye said. “Other times when we get super busy with lots of dogs or cats, then sometimes the donations don’t keep up, so we end up running short.”

The shelter’s greatest need now is for dog food.

“We ended up with a large amount of dogs coming into us over the last couple of weeks, six or seven at a time,” Kaye said. “Right now we have put out a call for adult dog food, and dog toys, to be able to give our dogs something to do so that they don’t get bored.”

“We run short on toys all the time for these guys,” she said.

The shelter also requires more adult cat food.

While it has been extremely hot outside in the past couple of weeks, the shelter has been making use of its fans to keep the facility cool inside.

Kaye said the shelter’s dogs are always kept in a shaded area when they are outside, so they are never in the heat for too long.

Crews have also set out some small backyard pools filled with water for the dogs to use to cool down.

“Small kiddy pools are definitely good,” Kaye said. “But if you have a dog playing in water out in the heat, you want to make sure that you are checking their coat on a regular basis to make sure they are not developing any hot spots [type of skin irritation due to moisture].”

As another suggestion, Kaye said people should never give their dogs or cats ice-cold water to cool down.

She said pet owners should always make sure their pet’s drinking water is room-temperature, or just slightly colder. They should not give their pets freezing cold water in the high heat because it can cause the animal to go into shock.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow