Northwest Animal Shelter

Bizz's Pet Grooming in Houston ran a silent auction last week in support of the NWAS. She raised $375.00 + three bags of dog food for us. Amazing! A big thank you to Bizz and everyone who donated including Brewstirs Cafe, BV Credit Union, Mike's Audio, Countrywide Printing, 1st Choice Fashions, Regina Meints, Catherine Lewis + others!

The Canadian Animal Assistance Team is coming back to the Burns Lake area for spay/neuter clinics. Last year's event was the largest spay/neuter clinic in BC's history! The team spayed and neutered about 250 dogs and cats, and did vaccinations, health checks and deworming on about 350 dogs and cats  helping over 100 families! Our Director, Lorna Bertram was there the entire time as a volunteer and you can read about her experience on the last page of our News and Events section. If you have friends or family in Burns Lake who cannot otherwise afford these services, please pass this information on to them.

http://www.lakesanimalfriendship.ca/

Have you LIKED us on Facebook or do you follow us on Twitter? We need your social media connections to create a larger audience for our homeless animals to reach people who may be looking for a new family pet - and to help spread animal welfare education including the need for spay/neuter in this northern area with few resources. If we can get a handle on overpopulation, the less animals being born means that many will have a greater chance to find a home.

Are you looking for a certain dog or a particular breed.  Please don't buy from a pet store as they usually get animals from puppy mills. Click here to read about what a puppy mill is. There are puppy mills in our area churning out puppies for profit. If you buy from them, you are keeping them in business. Don't be fooled by fancy brochures and cute puppies. Puppy mill operators rely on the 'cute' factor to make money, and their breeding females suffer through litter after litter because of it.

Contrary to popular belief, loads of purebred and breed specific dogs can be found at rescue groups like ours - from puppies to fully grown. Visit www.petfinder.com and do a search. Also, let us know what you are looking for so we can keep an eye out for you. Sometimes we have dogs in our care that are not on the website - need grooming or vet care etc., or that we are planning to ship to other rescues.

Kitten season is ahead. That may sound like an adorable scenario, but the truth is that every year shelters and rescue groups are flooded with unwanted kittens and puppies. We are no different. Spring is a crazy time. Puppies usually can find more help, but it is more difficult to find help for kittens and cats. PLEASE spay and neuter and help do your part to keep the numbers down. If you want to show your children the magic of birth, you can always foster a pregnant dog or cat and help find homes for the puppies and kittens.

Feb. 2012:  Smithers Secondary School students sell magazine subscriptions to promote reading and the Grade 8 Leadership class decides how to divide the money that is raised - among different charities. The NWAS was a very happy recipient this year, so a few of our representatives visited the glass and brought along Princess and Ki, two of our current fosters looking for homes of their own, and two of animals currently benefiting from these donations. You can see more pictures of Princess and Ki under our dogs and cats for adoption tabs. A very BIG Thank you to all the students for their hard work and for including the NWAS in your charitable giving. We always love visiting with the kids and the animals love it even more!

Jan. 2012:  Thank you to the fine folks at the Smithers Legion for including us in their Saturday afternoon meat draws. We recently picked up a $500.00 cheque and are very grateful for the support.

Despite our name we do not actually have a shelter. The biggest immediate need we have right now is for foster homes. For people to open up their hearts and homes to a homeless cat or dog, puppies or kittens, nursing moms and litters -  care for the animals until we can find an awesome permanent home that will love them forever.

The temporary shelter buildings we have are for the Town of Smithers to house their impounded dogs. All of our other rescue animals are cared for by foster homes. For more about foster, please look under PROGRAMS.

Other things we do

• Support several individuals who are involved in animal rescue with spay and neuter services, postings on our website and appeals for food, foster homes etc.
• Spay and Neuter Assistance Program:  We work with Babine Pet Hospital and BV Vet Clinic to provide financial help to individuals and families who cannot afford the full cost to spay or neuter their own pets.
• Spay and Neuter education through our posters, advertising, website and quarterly newsletter to members.
• Humane animal education & visits to local schools.
• Pet and health care counseling; training referrals
• Complimentary lost and found postings on our website.
• Provide free feral mousers to responsible farmers who request them.

We are a tiny group of volunteers, most with full-time jobs who devote considerable personal time and effort to this charity, we will do our best to help you with a lost or homeless animal but sometimes we simply run out of options, especially for placing cats. We do not have a dedicated phone number but we check our e-mail every day:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thank you.