Supporters came through once again in support of the Pembina Valley Humane Society during the holiday season.
The organization held its Santa Paws campaign for a fifth straight year with the goal of helping meet its needs for dog and cat food and cat litter for 2026.
“We started it during COVID, and it blew us away the first year, and it continues to do that,” said donor engagement chair Tanya Rempel. “We have so many people, even from local businesses, who offered to collect for us.
“It shows we have people in all different areas of the Pembina Valley and all different ages who are willing to do whatever they can to help the shelter,” she said. “We have a lot of people who are willing to help us out.”
The goal this year was to collect 300 cans each of wet cat food and wet dog food as well as 100 cans each of wet puppy and kitten food and 50 bags of cat litter.
Rempel shared last week that they collected over a thousand donated items overall.
“We met all of our donation goals aside from cat litter, but a lot of them, we exceeded. We were very happy with it.
“We kind of streamlined it to less items this year, and it seemed to go over really well,” Rempel noted. “We got over 250 cans of kitten food, which is great because we run of that usually in a couple of months.”
How much they go through and how quickly can vary from one year to the next.
“It’s hard to say. It’s dependent on the kitten season,” Rempel explained. “Last year, I think, we probably put a call out multiple times during the year, and we asked for a hundred at Christmas, and we burned through that by the spring.
“This won’t get us through the year, but it will likely get us through that first kitten season in the spring.”
Rempel felt it was worthwhile to focus on the most important basic needs.
“We focused on the things that we go through the most … and it’s kind of a cost effective things people can buy,” she said. “People can buy a can of food for a dollar or so, and it’s a nice way to feel like you are donating something worthwhile.
“We often have had to buy the wet kitten and the wet puppy food, especially if we have malnourished animals, so if we don’t have to buy that it gives us a little more money to pay for vet care or things like heating costs and other things that are going up.
“We’re very, very grateful to everyone who donated and all of the businesses that helped out,” stressed Rempel.
