The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Today our organization is working with severe limitations. Because we don't have a building of our own, we are unable to help as many animals as need our help. Only the lucky ones come under our care and protection Ð in other words, we're just touching the tip of the iceberg. Debbie Kuzub has been a very dedicated dog walker for the past six months. This week she commented that she never realized how rampant animal abuse was in our area until she started coming out to my kennel to help care for and walk the SPCA dogs. This week alone I took in another kitten from the Cranberry Portage dump. I was so happy to get her as I knew she had been there for over a month. Her brother and sister had been caught several weeks earlier and now have a home. The poor mom is seen every once in a while but she's so spooked that no one has been able to catch her. The mom and babies were taken to the dump by their owners. One baby was killed at the dump shortly after being left there. Friday night I took in my first guinea pig. This little creature was left in front of an apartment door. Believe it or not he had been tied inside a plastic bag that was inside a plastic milk crate. Why would anyone do that? Luckily the guinea pig chewed through the plastic bag before he smothered to death and luckily for the Internet which I had to turn to for finding out how to properly care for this latest addition. Today, I added five seven-week-old kittens to the menagerie. And so it goes. For every animal I take in, I probably turn down ten. And those are just the ones I get phone calls about. So many out there just slip between the cracks. For those who doubt the need for a shelter just come and spend a week with me. I'm sure I could change your mind. For every person who claims we don't need a shelter (because they have no knowledge of the abuse that exists), there is another who can't justify spending money on animals Ð after all, there are children who need help in our society. The truth is that animal shelters are very children oriented. For example, the Winnipeg Humane Society runs a summer program for children with over 500 kids taking part in their day camps. As well, they run programs for delinquent kids. The young lawbreakers are given dogs to train. I met one of these boys while visiting the Winnipeg Humane Society. A dog he helped train was going to be working on the set of a movie being filmed in Winnipeg. Training dogs had given him a purpose in life and those dogs had reached and "saved" him when everyone else had failed. Here in Flin Flon we try to include young people as much as possible. Having a facility of our own will enable us to run programs especially geared for young people. How many people know that when Humane Societies originated over 100 years ago they sheltered not only animals but also children and women as well? Child Services eventually branched off to become an entity of its own. Here in the North, Child Services is well established and there are resources for women who are beaten or who are in need. For those in need we have social assistance. We have soup kitchens and breakfast programs, service groups who build playgrounds for kids, personal care homes for the elderly, Meals on Wheels and home care. We have the Friendship Centre and churches, organizations that donate food hampers and gifts at Christmas time. In our schools we have extra help for students in the form of EA's as well as speech therapists, counsellors, etc. In other words, no one in our society need go without food and shelter and necessary help. While all the resources for people have evolved in the North and moved forward, the area of animal welfare was sadly neglected up until three years ago when the Flin Flon/Creighton and Area SPCA was formed. I believe we are filling a much-needed gap in our society. As adults we need to set a good example for our children. We can't do that while allowing cats and dogs to starve and freeze to death in front of our children's eyes. I want to thank everyone who has supported us over the past couple of years. We've helped a lot of animals Ð and people. Let's continue. For those who doubt the necessity of a shelter, perhaps it's time to think of a bigger picture. We don't wish to take anything away from anybody! We're here to make our community a better place to live Ð for people and animals.
