Best paw forward

No rest for PG Animal Rescue despite no volunteers or fundraising

Jun 21, 2020 | 3:26 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – “Rescue life does not rest,” says Nicola Redpath, owner of the Prince George Animal Rescue.

While the tasks at hand haven’t changed, Redpath admits that COVID019 has had its impact on things around the property, located on Bendixon Road southeast of the city.

“We haven’t been able to do out volunteer programming,” explained Redpath.

That programming has the Animal Rescue bring out groups of people interested in potentially volunteering to view the property before deciding whether or not they want to lend a helping hand.

“We haven’t been doing that, so all of the extra things fall on us.”

Prior to the pandemic, they were working on constructing a new dog kennel as well. However, that too has been put on hold.

“The fundraising that we normally do is unfortunately not coming in. We rely a lot on that stuff to do big projects like this. All of that gets put on hold and hopefully, we can start building up again and get back to normal as much as we can.”

In the past, Bosley’s has helped with fundraising for the Animal Rescue. According to Redpath, their Paws fundraiser brought in $14,000 alone, with $16,000 coming the year before. Unfortunately, that fundraiser had been put on hold due to the pandemic but has since started back up according to Redpath.

The Rescue has also benefitted from annual cash and wood donations from the Brink Group. However, without volunteers, those projects that utilize that wood remain on hold as mentioned.

On the plus side of things, Redpath says that – much liked the SPCA and PG Humane Society – animal adoptions have gone up since the start of the pandemic.

“We want to make sure people are going to handle that for the long-term so when things do go back to normal, they’re still able to look after those animals.”

Redpath says they can typically judge the level of commitment of someone looking to adopt based on the amount of detail they provide on the application forms.

Information on the Prince George Animal Rescue, including adoptable animals, can be found on their website.