The Victoria Humane Society wants to bring “a dynamic and fresh new approach to animal rescue in B.C.,” executive director Penny Stone said Thursday.
“Our new organization brings together a compassionate, experienced team to provide safe haven for sick, abandoned, injured animals locally and in remote communities,” she said at the organization’s official launch.
Stone said the launch comes as the society has a potential site for an animal shelter and headquarters on a 1.8-hectare property on Gillespie Road in East Sooke.
“It’s an amazing piece of property,” she said. “The biggest hurdle we had in looking for a place to have a shelter, a place to house Victoria Humane Society, was where we could get zoning, where we could have the bylaws that would allow us to be there to do the work that we want to do.”
The society has had charitable status since late last year, and became active under the guidance of Stone and Carol Broad.
It has been running for about three months, using a network of more than 50 animal foster homes as the basis of its operations.
During that time, 100 animals have been saved, Stone said. “We get calls every day.”
Among the animals brought to the launch Thursday was a mother dog with three puppies. She had a litter of seven but four froze to death, Stone said.
Stone said there are many good animal-welfare organizations in place, but they can’t do everything that needs to be done.
“There’s all sorts of organizations out there and they do amazing work,” she said. “What we want to do is be kind of be the unique organization that fills the gap that the other organizations can’t.”
That can mean travelling to remote, rural communities where animals are in danger or have no help available, Stone said. On top of that, she said there are animals that fall between the cracks or don’t fit into a particular category.
“There’s a lot of animals out there that there’s no place for them to go.”
Having a shelter for the animals is vital, Stone said.
“Once we rescue them, we need somewhere to bring them so that we can … find out what their needs are [and] we can get them to vets.”
The property the group wants to buy has previously been used for a kennel and comes with 16 heated kennel spaces and a building suitable for an administrative office. Stone said the vision for the spot includes nurseries for puppies and kittens and a spay/neuter clinic.
“There’s so many animals out there that aren’t getting spayed and neutered any more and there’s just no funds to go around.” Stone said the property is also “a beautiful, serene place where animals can be rehabilitated.”
“Animals that we get usually come from really horrible situations, most of them, and it’s really nice to be able to take them somewhere where we can work with them, they can feel safe, they can find out that humans are really good.”
A former manager at the SPCA, Stone praised it for the work that it does. While her firing last year caused controversy, she called the SPCA “an amazing organization” and the only one that can charge people with animal neglect and other offences related to animals’ treatment.
“We’re here to complement them. We hope to be able to work together with them.”
The non-profit society needs money to make things happen, Stone said. It has begun a campaign to raise $1 million within the 100-day deadline to complete the property deal. The money will be used to buy the land, establish the needed facilities and get everything underway, Stone said.
“We need money, we need time, we need everything, but we know we can make this work,” she said.
The society will help all kinds of animals, she said, including larger animals, such as horses.
“We’re here to fill a gap so we want to help out as much as we can.”
Donations can be made through the group’s website, victoriahumanesociety.com, on its Facebook page or through youcaring.com, an online fundraising website.
