Winnipeggers sleep outside to help save stray animals

WINNIPEG – Starving, freezing and bruised. That’s the way Gerdy was found and thousands of animals are left in Manitoba every year.

“At minus 40 their ears fall off, their legs falls off, their tails fall off to frost bite… within hours or days they die out there,” said D’Arcy Johnston, CEO of D’Arcy’s Animal Rescue Centre.

And that’s why a group of Winnipeggers will be “stray for a day” spending 24 hours outside D’Arcy’s A.R.C., without food or water; a glimpse of what their pets’ lives used to be like.

“My Leila was a stray for a month and for me to sleep one night outside it will kind of make me realize how important and…. how much of a problem this really is,” said volunteer Nikki Leganchuk.

Shelters like D’Arcy’s A.R.C. take in about 800 strays annually from across the province and say the problem of homeless animals is getting worse.

“I saw these wooden crates kind of propped up with pillows in them and I thought well, that’s pretty strange… so of course I had to Google it right away,” said Marcie Naismith who came by the site with her family to give donations.

The goal of the sleepout is to raise awareness and attract the attention of people who can help with food donations for the dogs and cats.

“I really got a giggle out of the humans actually staying outside for 24 hours in these make shift houses, and its like yeah, there’s animals that live like this day after day,” said Naismith.

All so more stray animals like Gerdy can be saved and given a chance instead of being left to die on the streets.