SPCA distributes free chow to city pet owners

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on August 31, 2022.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Jesse Tollefson of Community Animal Services grabs a bag of dog food for a resident during a giveway to needy families Tuesday in the Bowman Centre parking.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Life has been rough for some families between the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation. And it’s also impacted the ability of many to feed their pets as well as their families.

An initiative launched by Purina PetCare and run jointly by the Alberta SPCA and Lethbridge’s Community Animal Services provided relief to some residents on Tuesday.

Six pallets, or about 200 bags of dog and cat food, were delivered to the Bowman Arts Centre parking lot to be disbursed to needy families Tuesday. A large group were lined up before the noon giveaway began.

Skylar Plourde, director of services at Community Animal Services said by helping people to feed their pets, the initiative may help lower the number of abandoned animals and reduce the pressures on shelters.

While adoptions have remained about the same since the pandemic started, they have not kept up to the number of animals being abandoned.

Purina reached out to the SPCA, said Plourde, letting that organization know it had a supply of food to donate.

“The Alberta SPCA did some brainstorming sessions on how to use that. We were kind of involved in that, too,” said Plourde, adding the southeastern part of the province is the Alberta SPCA’s busiest area.

“With the economy now the way that it is coming out of COVID, people are struggling financially and those financial issues lead to people having to give up their animals or (they) aren’t properly able to care for them,” said Plourde.

“This might get people by for a month or two and that could be enough to financially get themselves back on their feet where they’re able to care for their pets again,” said Plourde.

“And in turn that will hopefully reduce the amount of animals that are abandoned or surrendered that both our agencies have to deal with it.” Those abandoned animals take up valuable space in shelters and rescue operations, he said.

In terms of capacity, Community Animal Services is “constantly riding a very, very thin line of being at capacity. Unfortunately cats, we really struggle with that. There is significantly more of an increase of cats coming in than getting adopted,” he said.

“Our mandate is animal services for the city; we can’t really turn dogs away,” said Plourde, so it’s more difficult to take in animals that have been surrendered because space is needed for strays.

“We’re seeing a massive increase in the number of stray dogs, as well. There’s a huge increase in the amounts of pets out there and adoptions aren’t picking up,” Plourde added.

“This event is to hopefully reduce what has to come into the shelter. This will help someone keep their pet at home.”

By 2 p.m., just over two pallets of food had been distributed.

People weren’t asked to show financial need or if their pets had been registered.

“It’s simply to get people access to things they need to care for their animals,” Plourde said.

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