Animal welfare organizations (AWOs) across Manitoba declared a state of emergency earlier this month and asked the provincial government to consider providing funding assistance to help with an overpopulation of dogs and cats.
At least 37 Manitoba AWOs signed a letter to the provincial government, asking premier Wab Kinew, agriculture minister Ron Kostyshyn and Indigenous economic development and municipal and northern relations minister Ian Bushie for annual funding assistance of $2.5 million for what they’re calling a public health emergency stemming from a lack of access to veterinary care and subsequent risk from diseases such as rabies.
“Despite repetitive pleas for help, animal welfare organizations are not receiving adequate government support. Their help is desperately needed. Volunteers cannot solve this crisis that our government has allowed to escalate to this breaking point. AWOs are out of resources; there is no more space or funds to help rehome animals or support pet owners,” states a March 11 letter drafted by Winnipeg-based Feed the Furbabies Canada and signed by 45 organizations across Manitoba, Ontario, BC and Alberta. “Animals have been transferred from Manitoba coast to coast across Canada and we have now filled those animal rescues in other provinces as well.”
The $2.5 million would go towards spay and neuter programs for urban, rural and isolated communities and for food and supplies for isolated communities, states the letter. The AWOs also want the government to commit to restricting puppy mills and backyard breeding.
Manitoba Animal Alliance is one of the animal welfare organizations that signed the letter. Although the alliance is based in Sandy Hook, it operates throughout the Interlake, including in First Nations communities such as Peguis and Fisher River, and other a
The registered charity was established in 2013 and is volunteer-run. It helps communities deal with homeless, injured and abandoned pets, operates a foster program and organizes mobile veterinary clinics that travel around the region to spay, neuter and vaccinate animals.
Alliance founder and director Debra Vandekerkhove said they’ve organized clinics north of Arborg, including in Peguis and Fisher River, as well as across the province. The alliance pays a veterinarian to perform spay and neuter operations. It’s also equipped with three of its own surgical stations and is working on buying a fourth. Those were made possible from donations the alliance received over several years.
Vandekerkhove said not only does the AWOs’ state of emergency pertain to animal overpopulation, but it also speaks to inequities in provincial funding. Under a three-year outreach program called One Health that was announced in 2022, the province is providing funding to the Winnipeg Humane Society, which in turn teams up with AWOs in various parts of the province to deliver vaccination and spay and neuter clinics.
That subsidy only goes so far, leaving coverage gaps in many areas, said Vandekerkhove.
“The volunteer animal welfare organizations are the ones that prepare these outreach clinics, set them up and tear them down. And it’s fine that the province wants to help fund these clinics, but the funding should be split up equitably so that clinics that are greatly needed in rural municipalities or in First Nations or in remote communities can have them,” she said.
Volunteer animal welfare organizations deserve recognition for their dedication to reducing animal suffering and protecting their health and preventing diseases such as rabies – which by extension protects human health. The statistics released pertaining to the number of One Health clinics performed is “based on our sweat equity,” she said. And it’s the AWOs themselves footing the bill for their volunteers’ travel costs to rural and remote areas and for food and other costs.
“What we’re asking for is that the province recognize volunteer rescue groups and offer some equitable funding. Groups who are able to operate independently, such as ourselves, have been alleviating this [animal overpopulation and health] burden for the province,” said Vandekerkhove. “Or the province can provide funding directly to municipalities, which can redirect that money towards spay and neuter and vaccination clinics.”
The need for such services in rural municipalities is apparent. Vandekerkhove said they’re seeing residents in municipalities such as the RM of Fisher bringing their animals to the clinics set up in First Nations such as Peguis because there are little to no services in their own municipalities.
“Municipal residents are bringing dogs and cats to reserves during our clinics. People in municipalities have such an issue with animal overpopulation. There’s a lot of animals suffering out there and people don’t have that outreach service,” said Vandekerkhove. “A lot of veterinarian offices in the Interlake are only offering one day a week, and they have really big areas to cover. We’re seeing vets coming from other regions, doing a very long drive to places like Arborg or Fisher Branch.”
The highest number of vaccinations Manitoba Animal Alliance has delivered (so far) on one day was 185. That was with one veterinarian and a group of MAA volunteers. The highest number of spay and neuter operations they’ve delivered on one day was 63. Those are “big numbers,” said Vandekerkhove. And the organization is getting calls from communities across Manitoba such as Clear Lake, Grand Rapids, Easterville, Waywayseecappo, Poplar River, St. Theresa Point, Norway House and Garden Hill because people “want a solution” to animal overpopulation and the risk of rabies.
“We don’t want to just go in and do a vaccine clinic. We want to be able to go in and empower and teach people, and get team leaders in communities to manage vaccines and do a follow-up,” she said.
Because volunteer organizations can only do so much based on the funding they receive from donors, Vandekerkhove said they’ve reached out to some rural municipalities to ask for help with combatting animal overpopulation and to ask if the RM will subsidize and host low-cost spay and neuter and vaccination clinics for their own constituents. Organizations like the Manitoba Animal Alliance could help set up and operate those clinics using local veterinarians.
“One of the biggest issues we have is animal overpopulation, and municipalities are pushing them down to Winnipeg. We see that north of Winnipeg and from areas south of Winnipeg. That’s happening because municipalities don’t have their own animal welfare programs or low-cost spay and neuter clinics for their own communities,” she said. “For a lot of abandoned animals, municipalities have no capacity, no shelters and no way of managing this. Some municipalities do have animal control to pick up and deal with animals, but they don’t capacity for dogs. Sending animals to Winnipeg just overwhelms city shelters.”
Vandekerkhove said the highest numbers of positive rabies cases in wildlife in Manitoba occur in the Interlake, and the provincial government should be “stepping up its game” to provide subsidized vaccine clinics as many people living in the Interlake struggle to pay for veterinarian services.
“During World Rabies Day [September 2023], the province helped fund no-cost rabies vaccines and other pet vaccines for people on budgets living in Winnipeg. Why not offer that to municipalities where there’s a higher risk of rabies? We asked for vaccines and were declined. We asked for tapeworm medication for dogs – tapeworms can be passed on to humans – and were declined. It shouldn’t just be the city that’s getting these free rabies vaccines They should include municipalities where rabies is more prevalent,” she said.
Manitoba Animal Alliance and other AWOs just want to be part of the solution, she said, offering subsidized low-cost clinics to their own communities. The RM of Gimli – as well as other RMs – has an emergency measures organization (EMO) officer who can deliver rabies vaccines to the community along with an AWO.
“We could be offering no-cost or low-cost vaccines, say $10, to our own constituents. Let’s work in a partnership to get these vaccines into the rural municipalities where there’s a public health risk,” she said. “I think the RMs have to start putting money into this.”
The RM of Gimli, which provides an animal control service, was asked whether it would consider providing funding for no- or low-cost spay and neuter and vaccination clinics.
Councillor Thora Palson said the municipality contributes to the welfare of animals and would consider a funding request from any local group.
“The RM of Gimli has an annual grant funding process in which all local organizations can submit an application for consideration,” she said.
She added that animal welfare is important and that other jurisdictions, such as New York (starting in December 2024), have gone so far as to ban pet stores from selling dogs, cats and rabbits in a bid to crack down on puppy and kitten mills and prevent animals from being raised in inhumane conditions or suffer abuse.
Palson said the people who work in our local animal welfare sector deserve recognition.
“I want to recognize all the people in our community who work in animal welfare and who give their time to the care of animals in need,” she said.
A communications spokesperson for the provincial department of municipal and northern relations declined to say whether funding could be granted to Manitoba’s animal welfare organizations, asking the Express to instead contact cabinet communications.
For more information about the Manitoba Animal Alliance and its services, visit www.manitobaanimalalliance.com
