In the story ‘Turtle Gardens to move all of its adoptable dogs to Vancouver,’ published in the Lakes District News’ Jan. 20 issue, Turtle Gardens manager Yvette Labatte announced that all adoptable dogs at the Topley facility would be flown or driven to foster homes in the Lower Mainland.
Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue, a no-kill group foster home and rehabilitation centre situated in Topley, B.C., will remain as a sanctuary only. Labatte said a paid employee will continue to take care of the 32 "sanctuary dogs," which all came from abusive homes or have shown signs of aggression.
However, the facility will not accept any new intakes. In fact, the facility has been closed for new intakes since June 3, 2015.
So what happens now to impounded dogs in Burns Lake?
The Village of Burns Lake, in cooperation with Dr. Lois Martin of the Burns Lake Veterinary Clinic, started a program a few years ago in which instead of unclaimed dogs being euthanized, the euthanasia fee was allocated to spaying and neutering these animals. These spayed and neutered dogs were then transferred to Turtle Gardens so they could be adopted out.
With Turtle Gardens curtailing their operation last summer, the village was forced into seeking alternative solutions to the fostering out of unclaimed animals.
The village then contacted the Lakes Animal Friendship Society (LAFS) and enlisted their assistance in resolving the fostering out issue. Village staff met with LAFS directors last September to address this situation and the LAFS directors proposed a partnership that would encompass the Village of Burns Lake, LAFS and the Prince George Humane Society.
This new partnership would allow the village to transfer dogs into the Prince George Humane Society’s network of foster homes, with the purpose of ultimately getting them out for adoption.
Volunteers from LAFS would work with village staff to get dogs transferred as required.
Council directed staff to bring this item back to budget deliberations and no decision has been made to date.
According to Sheryl Worthing, Chief Administrative Officer for the Village of Burns Lake, over the past four years there has been a “dramatic decrease” in the number of animals that needed to be fostered out in Burns Lake. In fact, for the last three months, the village has not needed to foster out any animals.
“Upon the capture of a stray dog, the village takes every possible effort to contact its owner for its return,” explained Worthing. “We have had great success in returning these dogs by photographing them and putting their picture on Facebook.”
Alistair Schroff, LAFS Director, said LAFS has also made great efforts to maintain a stable dog population in the Lakes District.
“We have made great strides in controlling the dog population in a humane and proactive way through our spay/neuter programs which the village has supported on an in-kind basis,” he said. “As a result of our spay/neuter programs, the numbers of dogs impounded by the village has dropped dramatically.”
“As a general note, we are still very firm believers in local adoption solutions,” added Schroff. “We are always seeking to make connections between local dogs that need homes and local people looking to save a life by adopting a dog.”
“We encourage people to advertise locally - in the Lakes District News, on bulletin boards or elsewhere - and connect with each other.”