SPCA building campaign begins
Leon Davis, Nanaimo SPCA branch manager, and his buddy Bijou, a toy poodle who lives at the shelter, inspect the ruins of a burned out farm house at the SPCA’s future home on Westwood Road. The B.C. SPCA has given approval for the Nanaimo branch to start fundraising toward its planned $2-million new facility.
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Updated: September 02, 2009 2:29 PM
The dream of a new facility for the Nanaimo and District SPCA is building momentum.
The branch has the green light from the provincial society to begin fundraising for a new shelter.
“It’s been a hope for the past five years or more that we would have a shelter there,” said Leon Davis, branch manager. “It’s desperately needed in this community.”
Lorie Chortyk, B.C. SPCA spokeswoman, said the Nanaimo branch needs $2 million.
Last weekend, the society approved a facilities plan that identified an immediate need for replacement of eight of the 37 B.C. shelters – including Nanaimo – and asked those branches to launch fundraising efforts.
“In order to move forward with the facility, we have to know the community support is there,” said Chortyk. “It was just the go ahead to move as quickly as possible to begin fundraising. The minute the money comes in, we can move forward.”
The SPCA bought a 4.85-hectare Westwood Road property in 2002 for a new shelter.
The new shelter would be three times as large as the current 1,300-square-foot building and could potentially take farm animals, as well as handle the huge volume of cats, dogs and other pets the SPCA eceived every year.
Davis said the shelter takes in and cares for about 1,300 animals annually, which has been hard to do in the existing building.
“We can get pretty full in the shelter with cats and that can affect their health,” he said. “The place is too small.”
The new shelter would include at least three large indoor/outdoor areas for cats, a dozen large kennels, a large medical centre and a staff-training area.
Davis said the shelter must raise half the total needed before design work can begin, although the shelter is not starting from scratch – it already has more than $100,000.
Details of the fundraising campaign have yet to be finalized, but the SPCA intends to ask the City of Nanaimo and Regional District of Nanaimo for financial support.
“We respond to animal cruelty complaints so the RCMP don’t have to,” said Davis. “I think if we weren’t here, they would have a real crisis on their hands.”
reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
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