EDMONTON – Staff and crew from both the Edmonton Humane Society (EHS) and Parkland County’s Pet Food Bank travelled to northern Alberta this weekend in order to rescue a large number of animals – mostly dogs – and bring them back to Alberta’s capital.
A team set out for Atikameg on Saturday, an area encompassing five First Nation reserves: Whitefish Lake, Loon Lake, Peerless/Trout, Lubicon, and Woodland Cree.
“This is the most remote community we have ever travelled to,” Corey Mowles, director of operations at EHS, said. “We try and go wherever we can, we don’t look at Edmonton as being a boundary.”
Mowles said the northern Alberta mission took months of planning and that the Pet Food Bank approached EHS because of its medical facility and staff.
He added that while there are capacity issues at times, EHS is able to take on the animals that will be rescued.
“We’ve had a lot of ebbs and flows and ups and downs with respect to capacity and how many animals we have in care,” he said. ” We did have the resources right now, that’s why it was perfect timing for us to take on this initiative.”
Mowles said about 51 stray or unwanted animals were brought back to Alberta’s capital, including two pregnant dogs and a pregnant cat.
The animals are now at the shelter and their medical condition and behaviour is being assessed.
In 2015, EHS transferred in 273 animals from other shelters and rescue groups.
Atikameg is almost 380 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
Other rescue groups also make trips north to rescue unwanted or stray animals. Earlier this week, the Alberta Spay Neuter Task Force rescued dozens of dogs and cats from Wabasca.
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