IN PHOTOS: 71 dogs and puppies rescued in large-scale mission in Northern Alberta

Dozens of dogs and puppies were rescued from communities outside Peace River, Alta. over the weekend by the Edmonton Humane Society and the Pet Food Bank of Parkland County.

“They put together a team, we devoted some of our team members and they brought back a lot of dogs,” Miranda Jordan-Smith, CEO of the Edmonton Humane Society, said. “We got three pregnant dogs in the mix as well as lots of puppies. It was a very successful mission.”

READ MORE: Edmonton Humane Society at maximum capacity for cats and kittens 

Teams from both organizations worked long hours to gather up and bring 71 dogs and puppies back to Edmonton for medical care, shelter and ultimately find loving adoptive families for them.

It’s part of an expanded role for the humane society and the group is glad it’s able to work with its partners to organize rescue missions across the province whenever possible.

“On this particular mission, we went up with the Pet Food Bank of Parkland County and they had access to this particular reserve, so we all went up together as one team and these were all owner-surrendered animals,” Jordan-Smith explained.

The Edmonton Humane Society posted photos of the pups on its Facebook page, swelling hearts of animal lovers everywhere.

This is the largest number of dogs the humane society has ever brought back in one rescue mission.

“Once we get 71 animals in one go, our medical team is ready – we have them on stand-by, in fact, there were some included in the rescue mission itself – so they just become part of our general population. We put them through our regular animal flow process, we get them admitted, they get health checks, we work with them on any behavioural issues and then of course we get them placed up for adoption as quickly as possible,” Jordan-Smith said.

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READ MORE: Edmonton Humane Society going extra mile to help dogs in remote northern community 

Because the rescues come from many different walks of life, some will need extra TLC before they can be adopted.

“At this stage, I would encourage people to be checking out our website if they’re looking for a puppy or a dog – 71 did jack up our numbers quite a bit on the dog front over the weekend – so we will be having lots come available in the next few days as they clear medical and get placed up.”

The EHS thanked the Pet Food Bank of Parkland County and all the people in the northern communities that helped make the rescue possible.

Follow @Emily_Mertz