Swift Current SPCA makes major announcement at 50th anniversary celebration
A fun evening of great food and live entertainment at the Swift Current SPCA 50th anniversary Halloween gala also included an announcement about a major capital campaign in 2024.
The celebration of a half century of dedicated care for homeless pets took place at the Swift Current Legion Hall, Oct. 21.
The Halloween themed anniversary featured live entertainment by popular Saskatchewan band Men Without Shame. Melanie Weinbender, the president of the Swift Current SPCA board of directors, said it was a great event.
“It was such a good time,” she mentioned. “It was nice to see the community support on Saturday coming out and I think everybody had a really good time. The atmosphere was fantastic.”
The event was an opportunity to celebrate the non-profit organization’s role and contribution in providing shelter and adoption services for Swift Current and southwest Saskatchewan, but at the same time an announcement was made about the future.
The Swift Current SPCA has received a bequest from the estate of Lori Stauber, who passed away in 2021. She wanted to leave a legacy gift for the humane care and shelter of animals in need.
Her generosity will make it possible for the Swift Current SPCA to move ahead with a capital campaign in 2024 to fund the building of a new animal shelter.
“She was a very big supporter of the SPCA and she really believed in the mission of the SPCA,” Weinbender said. “She absolutely loved animals and she’d been out to our location. She knew we needed a larger facility. So we can’t be more honoured to be receiving this bequest. It’s just absolutely amazing.”
More details about the bequest amount cannot be released at the moment, because particulars are still being worked out. However, the amount is substantial enough to allow the Swift Current SPCA to start a capital campaign in the new year.
The cost of a new shelter building will be considerable and the Swift Current SPCA is in the process of working out those details in preparation for the start of a capital campaign.
“There are shelter standards in Canada that have to be met,” she said. “So when you’re building a shelter, it’s almost like you’re building a small hospital. You have to meet certain codes for ventilation. You have to meet certain requirements for containment sizes so that the animals have proper movement.”
The organization is also considering whether a new shelter building can be constructed at its current location or at a different site.
“We’re entertaining both at the moment to see what’s going to suit our needs the best,” she said.
The Swift Current SPCA has been providing shelter services since 1973 and it has been using the current shelter facility since 1990. The building is home to hundreds of homeless pets every year and it has reached the end of its lifespan.
“Space is a huge challenge, but more than that is the fact that our building is starting to deteriorate so badly that it’s not really even feasible to think about renovating it, because we looked into that option as well,” she said.
It has become increasingly difficult to provide shelter services in the existing space due to the ongoing and growing need.
“Every year we see the need going up and up,” she said. “You can’t build a shelter big enough to house absolutely everything, because there’s always going to be a greater need than there probably is space for a lot of the animals. But we have passed our capacity for what that building can hold probably a decade ago. So we need to look at getting enough space where we don’t have waiting lists that are three to four months for people to get an animal in. That space challenge is absolutely huge for us.”
In the past the shelter had to deal with a waiting list for cats, especially during kitten season, but now the same is happening for dogs.
“This is the first year that we’ve had such an influx of dogs,” she said. “We don’t normally have a waiting list for dogs, or it’s only maybe a week or two. This year we had a serious waiting list even for dogs. We can’t even say anymore that it’s just the cat waiting list. It has now become the waiting list for both cats and dogs.”
According to Weinbender several factors might contribute to more animals being surrendered. There is the increased cost of living or pet owners move to rental properties that do not allow pets. People got a companion animal during the COVID-19 pandemic when they were spending more time at home and now they find it is too much of a commitment. Animals that are not spayed or neutered also result in an influx of puppies and kittens.
The challenges and expenses to care for animals at the current shelter facility will continue while the Swift Current SPCA plans the details of the upcoming capital campaign.
More announcements will be made in the future. There will be a need for volunteers to sit on committees and help out with the campaign.