With temperatures expected to plummet in the coming days, the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS) is putting out an urgent plea for people to open their homes to foster dogs and puppies.
The group says its current situation is “critical.” There are more than 30 puppies and numerous dogs in its shelter awaiting foster care.
“Unfortunately, if we can’t find foster homes for animals that are coming in, there could be a time that we might have to say no, which is never something that we want to do,” said Leigh McLean, AARCS’ Edmonton operations manager.
“Obviously when people call us in, the animals are really in need. Foster homes really allow us to be able to bring in more animals on short notice.”
AARCS is expecting an increase in rescue calls as it gets colder outside.
“We are anticipating a surge in calls due to the harsh weather conditions, and we need to make room in our animal shelters to accommodate the influx,” said director Rachel Cote.
“Without a place to go, homeless animals will surely perish.
“Fostering provides these animals with a warm and loving environment and frees up space for more animals in desperate need.”
AARCS has a shelter in Calgary and Edmonton and provides all necessary supplies, including food, bedding and medical care, for foster families.
Individuals interested in fostering can visit the AARCS website to sign up.
“It always increases a lot when we get weather that changes this quickly, but we’ve found that over the last year or so, our intake requests have gone up quite significantly just in general,” McLean added.
“Sometimes it’s just that they’re strays, sometimes it’s just that they’ve been living outside and the weather itself becomes too much for them. A lot of the animals that we have that come in from outdoors are young, so they just don’t have the capabilities to tolerate the change in weather,” she explained.
“A lot of them have coats and some of them are more suited to the cold than others, but especially the babies, they just don’t have the capabilities to do that, they don’t have the street smarts to get away from the cold,” McLean said.
“Often we’ll find little baby animals that will be looking for people because they think people will take care of them.”
Much of Alberta is bracing for a significant drop in temperatures later this week.
“Our coldest days will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday with a -40 wind chill expected Friday and Saturday morning,” said Global Calgary chief meteorologist Tiffany Lizee.
The City of Edmonton activated its extreme cold weather response on Monday at noon. Based on the forecast, it’s expected to remain in place until Thursday, Jan. 18. The threshold is a temperature of -20C with a wind chill for at least three consecutive nights.
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