New Brunswick SPCA $100,000 in debt, says it needs more funding

The New Brunswick SPCA says it is $100,000 in debt and in need of increased funding.

Tracy Marcotullio, the organization’s newly appointed fundraising chair, says the board of directors is working to bring down the deficit by year’s end.

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“That means we’re faced with trying to find ways to fundraise and make sure that our animal protection program continues forward,” Marcotullio said.

Animal protection officers including Olivia Justason are employed by the NBSPCA and are on the front lines fighting animal cruelty every day.

“There’s animal protection officers like myself that go province wide, running the roads and responding to complaints of neglect and abuse,” Justason said.

With a lack of funding and animal abuse cases not slowing down, the organization finds itself between a rock and a hard place.

“It’s sort of a unique situation,” Marcotullio said. “To find an organization that is there to uphold laws that needs to depend on money from the public to continue to do that work.”

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Justason says animal protection officers go “to court, right beside RCMP, DNR, different agencies, enforcing the law just like they are, but we don’t get the funding.”Protection Officer

She says the unpredictability of cases underscores the need for funding.

“I had removed 144 animals from a home here in Fredericton and that kind of started what became a large deficit,” she said.”That seizure alone cost us $20,000. A lot of those animals needed vet care, boarding fees, food, to be taken care of and then the court process. So when we get those big seizures like that … it does come with a big price tag.”

Marcotullio says the organization hopes to increase corporate sponsorship to eliminate its debt, but ensuring they don’t step on the toes of individual shelters can be a challenge.