The SPCA’s Raise the Woof Fundraiser will be held Saturday, October 3rd, at the Senior’s Drop-in Centre in Bonnyville. The event features dinner and the comedy stylings of Brian Stollery. The event, which is nearly sold out, serves as the SPCA’s major fundraiser.

The SPCA explains shelter manager, Heather Mutch, is not government-funded. The event is intended to cover the operational costs for the year. The fundraiser is in need of silent auction items, explains Mutch, “our silent auction items are down a lot this year. Really down.” Heather understands the economy plays a big factor, but the show must go on as they say, “you can’t cancel an annual event because of the economy. You just do the best you can.”

If people are unable to attend, Heather says they accept monetary donations year round, “that helps the expenses and it helps if we want to purchase an item for our silent auction.” The organization will provide tax receipts for donations and give recognition, “we will put a sign at the event that the item was donated by a certain person or company.”

Along with the operational costs to keep the shelter running and the animals healthy and fed, the shelter hopes to expand their dog building, explains Heather. “We’ve applied for a grant for repairs and renovations. We have some major expenses in renovations, so we’ve applied for a matching grant. Hopefully, we get approved for that so we can do some major repairs to our dog building and our dog park.”

The shelter just transferred three dogs to a shelter in Edmonton, partly because of space issues and partly because they have lived at the shelter for a long time without interest in adoption from the public. “They would’ve grown old in the kennel here,” Heather explains at the Edmonton Humane Society their chances of adoption are higher, “they are usually adopted within the first couple weeks.” The same goes for cats, says Heather.

“Sometimes we can be doubling up dogs in Kennels, so we’d have 15-16 dogs at times,” Heather says. There is currently a momma dog and her pups in one kennel at the shelter, “it gets crowded really fast because we’re so small.” Heather explains there’s quite a lot of work that needs to be done on the dog side of the shelter, “we’re putting a new roof on the dog building, and roofs on the outside dog kennels, as well as, the isolation side. There’s some cement work in the dog play yards that needs to be done because the dogs dig and we’ve had a few incidents where they dig under the wire and they can get loose.”

The SPCA’s monthly expenses work out to approximately $12,000. The SPCA is funded solely on monetary donations, they cannot accept animal food due to dietary restrictions. Luckily, they have a deal in place with Hill’s Science of Canada, which supplies the shelter’s food at a minimal cost.

If you are unable to attend the fundraiser on Saturday, you may contact the shelter to donate a silent auction item or place a monetary donation by calling 780-826-3230.