Some people in Thompson may have noticed that the city's Humane Society, located on 27 Nelson Rd., hasn't been open its usual hours for the past three weeks to a month. But the board of directors says it should be up and running again by Oct. 5.
Oswald Sawh, chairperson of the Thompson Humane Society, says the last two employees had to quit for personal reasons, which left only board members to staff the operation while looking for new employees. As a result, the Humane Society has only been open on Saturday afternoons for the past while.
Sawh says it's not so much an issue of recruitment and retention as it is finding the exact right person for a job that has many different facets and challenges.
"There are a number of skills that a person has to have. I mean, we consider animals as our clients, unlike most organizations in town where it's people. But for us, it's the dogs and cats, so every facet of our operation revolves around that As a result of that there are a number of different skill sets a person has to have where you have to balance cleaning kennels, scooping up dog and cat stool on a daily basis and maintaining health checksthe fact that also you have to multi-task. This is an organization where, at the most at any one time we will employ two people - even that at times is a challenge," he explains. "We always tell people that the only major rule we have if you want to apply for a job at the Humane Society is you have to love animals. Everything else we can train, whether it's running the store, the adoption process or cleaning kennels and so on."
The Thompson Humane Society is reopening on Oct. 5 with its regular hours of 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Both an assistant and a shelter administrator have been hired and will both be on board and trained by that time.
Sawh says that during the time the Humane Society was on the hunt for employees, there were many board members who stepped up to the plate and ensured that the animals got all the care they needed and that customers needs were addressed too.
"It's not like we sell dried goods - we can't lock the door and walk away for a week or two weeks. So we had to engage our board," he explains. "There are a few people on our board, along with myself, that have been doing the cleaning in the mornings and the evenings. For instance, I'll go out there at 6:30 a.m. and I'll let the dogs out, give them their meal and water and so on. Then throughout the day I'll go and give two dogs at a time a chance to run around in the back yard and have their exercise."
Sawh says the temporary shut down has not dampened the enthusiasm people in the City of Thompson have when it comes to adopting pets, with around 10 cats being adopted and around two or three dogs in the time period. He says it's also nice that dogs and cats haven't really been coming in from the city's animal patrol program in the last three weeks, which would have created space issues at the shelter, which has 15 indoor kennels for dogs and 18 kennels for cats, along with a back yard where the dogs can get their exercise and two cat rooms where the cats can play.
Sawh says he's also thankful for the relationship the Thompson Humane Society has with the Winnipeg Humane Society and Winnipeg Pet Rescue as well as Calm Air. Currently, if the Thompson Humane Society does not have room in its facility for cats and dogs due to space or kennel issues, they are flown down to the two Winnipeg organizations by Calm Air for free.
"Whenever they can Calm Air will try and find space to fly animals down, which I would say on an annual basis, when we probably send an average of let's say about 40 to 50 animals down - if you do the math on that, if we had to pay for that, we'd probably have to pay $45,000, which is a huge amount for us," he says. "We actually started that when Mr. Morberg was alive. He was a big animal lover, so we made the deal with them, and as long as it doesn't interfere with the passengers and so on, and they have space, they'll take kennels."
Despite the staffing issues the Humane Society has faced lately, Sawh says it's got a bright future for serving not just Thompson but the entire North.
"Our long-term goal for the Humane Society is to actually be a Northern region humane societyand we want to go out there and provide education in regards to what animals' basic needs are," he enthuses. "We had a strategic planning meeting back in the springtime, and we want to be much more aggressive with the education part. We want to go out in the schools, talk about the need to spay and neuter for dogs and cats, and quote the stats where if your dog or cat is not spayed or neutered what are the results of that?"
Sawh says it's also important to go to different Northern communities and promote proper winter care of dogs. He says that if an outdoor dog is to survive the winter and remain in good health, they must have adequate dog-house like shelters where the wind cannot reach them, filled with straw to keep them warm. Owners must also check to make sure the animals' water does not freeze and must feed them more often, since outdoor dogs need more food in winter to create more body heat.
The Thompson Humane Society is also looking at forming an animal protection program. Currently there is no such program in the City of Thompson, since the animal control program is not the same thing as an animal protection program.
"The animal control program will [act as one] at times, when there are specific cases that come up and they're called in from the Manitoba Veterinary Office, but the city does not do that too often. It's a provincial mandate," he rationalizes. "So we're working with the Manitoba Veterinary Office to have this contracted as a program that will provide that. We want to do it in a proactive manner. I think it's safe to say that by far the vast majority of people do not intentionally abuse an animal - a lot of times when we see any sort of what people see as cruelty, it's more from ignorance than anything else."
Sawh says three more things the society is interested in is expanding their building, getting a pet cemetery for Thompson and also getting the community a dedicated dog park.
He says that he highly encourages people to come down and take a look at the dogs and cats the society has to offer, professing that often the most loveable, loyal pets are the ones that are given a second chance.
