BY BILL PHILLIPS
If you want to help out some puppies in your city, why not go to the pub to do that?
Puppy Pub Day is coming up on Sunday, May 28.
“It kicks off our fundraising for the year,” says Jamie Walsh, North Cariboo SPCA district manager. “We have three main fundraisers throughout the year … Puppy Pub Day, Paws for a Cause is in September and then our annual auction with PG Motors is at the end of the year.”
Every year the local SPCA challenges Kamloops to see who can raise more money and Walsh is hoping Prince George comes out on top this year.
“They have a few things in the works already, but we’re hoping we can beat them.”
The event runs all day at the Westwood Pub on May 28. There will be a barbecue, fun games for the children, bouncy castle, mascot dances. There will also be a 50-50 and a silent auction, which will lead into the evening with drinks and food inside for the adults.
The SPCA has funding for specific programs, but other than that it relies on donations from the community.
“Our medical costs, running the shelter, all of those things rely on donors,” she says. “Fundraising is critical to our growth and helping us get towards a new shelter, helping the animals the care that the new, the room to thrive.”
Walsh is hopeful they can move from their current location on Landsdowne Road to the new location set aside for the SPCA on 18th Avenue by late 2018.
“It will be amazing,” she says. “It will have a cruelty investigations department. The building we use now for cruelty investigations is very sub-par, not enough for what they need to do. The kennels are smaller than what we would like them to be.”
She said they aren’t able to house as many animals as they would like to now, so they rely heavily on foster families for dogs and cats.
