Vancouver Humane Society
Our new bus shelter ad in Vancouver is a timely reminder that sick and injured animals need your help.
VHS is running the ad until January 5 to seek support for our McVitie Fund for emergency veterinary care. With your help hundreds of animals will get desperately needed treatment and more will be spayed or neutered.
Watch for our ad around town! Thanks to the City of Vancouver for providing ad space and to 24ptHelvetica for design.
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It’s Giving Tuesday, the day Canadians and people around the world give back to their communities and help others. VHS is asking you to help animals today – Animals like Charlie, pictured left.
Charlie had swallowed a rock, which needed to be surgically removed right away. His guardians didn’t have the money for this expensive surgery, so VHS stepped in to help. Although he nearly died, Charlie pulled through, and this seven-year-old Golden Retriever is now healed and glad to be home.
He’s just one of many animals VHS has helped through our McVitie Fund, which assists animals in desperate need of emergency veterinary care. A wonderful donor has committed to doubling all donations up to $15,000! Please donate $10.00, or any amount you are comfortable with, and then ask your family, friends and co-workers to follow your generous lead in honour of GivingTuesday.
You can also help us run a compelling bus ad posing the question why love one animal but eat the other!
With your help we can save animals today, tomorrow and long into the future!
Levi, a mini Australian Shepherd, went missing on December 18 in the area of 13th Avenue and Clark Drive in Vancouver. He was last seen on December 23 near Kingsway and Glen.
His guardians are desperate to find him and have advised that he is extremely shy and will run away if called or chased. So if you see him please call 778-847-7045. He is also registered with 24 hour pet watch, 866-597-2424. Microchip #0A12206166. A reward is offered.
It doesn’t look like it, but this little girl had a lucky break. Seven-month-old Tonka fell off a deck earlier this year and snapped both her front legs. Her horrified guardians rushed her to a vet where her legs were set in casts, but they also learned she would need surgery to insert pins and plates that would save the use of Tonka’s legs. The cost was substantial and despite borrowing and scraping together every cent they could, the amount still came up short. Fortunately, VHS was able to help out through our McVitie Fund for sick and injured animals. Tonka got her operation and she’s expected to make a full recovery.
Visa will donate $10 to VHS for each new monthly online donor!
CanadaHelps (VHS’s online donation port) and Visa are teaming up to help charities! Beginning November 1st, 2012 (today!!) Visa will donate $10 to VHS when new donors set up a new monthly donation through CanadaHelps*. Monthly donations not only enable VHS to help animals today; they also enable us to plan for tomorrow. Consider asking a friend or family member to give a monthly donation to VHS in your honour for Christmas!
Here’s how it works:
* CanadaHelps is a registered charity with a goal to make giving simple. Through CanadaHelps.org, anyone can donate online to any registered Canadian charity.
Scooter, a handsome tabby boy, had just been to the vet to be neutered. The vet suggested he wear a cone until he healed, so he wouldn’t open the wound, but when Scooter got home, he was disoriented from the cone and fell off his scratching post. His family rushed him back to the vet, who diagnosed a dislocated hip. Because the family is on a severely limited income, there was no money to help their precious cat, and with the three children in tears, they desperately called VHS for help.
Thanks to our McVitie Fund and a challenge grant from the Irene Joy Stewart and Florence Maud Shedden Endowment for Domestic and Wild animal Welfare, Scooter was successfully treated and is now back home and on the mend. His guardian had this to say: “My wife, myself, and our three kids give our thanks! We can’t thank you enough for helping to keep a beautiful animal alive and enjoying a full life. Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!”
And thank you to all of you who support VHS – and there’s still time to have your donation doubled!
UPDATE: Nelson has been adopted! Thanks to everyone who spread the word about Nelson’s situation.
Nelson is looking for a forever home!
This sweet little tabby boy is typical of the animals that VHS helps. He was found in a back yard, starving, and his ears were full of mites. Although he’s estimated to be around 5 years old, he wasn’t neutered! No wonder he kept getting into trouble with the neighborhood cats.
He’s now being fostered and doing very well. Thanks to VHS supporters, he’s neutered, vaccinated and has been treated for his ear mites. He’s had an FIV test which, thankfully, was negative. He’s litter-trained, playful and loves to give head butts! He likes having his head scratched, and doesn’t mind dogs.
Can you give him a home? Please email debra@vancouverhumanesociety.bc.ca if Nelson is the cat for you.
(Watch Global TV’s story on Chopper here.)
It’s not something that VHS would normally do, but when we were approached by a Good Samaritan asking us to help out with a dog who needed grooming, we made an exception.
The dog in question is Chopper, who belongs to Bill, a man down on his luck and without the resources to pay for a long overdue grooming for Chopper. Bill can be seen most days sitting on the sidewalk in front of Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver, with a cupful of loose change from a few generous passersby. He and Chopper are a popular fixture at the station, known to local businesses and watched over by friendly police.
The caring person who contacted VHS had engaged Bill in conversation and, with his agreement, set in motion a plan that eventually involved the Aussie Pet Mobile grooming service, the Vancouver Police Department, Global Television and VHS. In addition to her co-ordinating efforts, she also also brought Bill food (including his favourite: mashed potatoes). VHS agreed to cover the cost of the grooming. On May 8, everything came together and Global TV’s Mike McCardell covered Chopper’s big day. After nearly two hours of grooming, Chopper emerged a new dog, looking and obviously feeling great. Bill was over the moon to see his pal clean, clipped and happy.
VHS usually restricts funding help to animals in emergency medical need, but we were so impressed that one individual (who wishes to remain anonymous) would take the time to befriend and help someone like Bill and his best friend Chopper, that we decided we had to help.
As it turns out, the generous people at Aussie Pet Mobile have decided to make a substantial donation to VHS, so everyone has come out ahead!
Miley, a ten-week-old puppy, was sold to a family at the Abbotsford Flea Market by a breeder who had lied about her health. The family was told Miley had been vaccinated and was in perfect condition, but when the family took her home she fell gravely ill only a few days later.
Miley was rushed to the vet, where she was diagnosed with parvovirus, a sickness that can be fatal to puppies. The family did not have the means to pay for the costly treatment so they called VHS for help. We are happy to report that Miley sailed through her treatment without a problem and is now in perfect health. She is now a happy and active little puppy with a loving forever home.
VHS does its best to help sick and injured animals though our McVitie Fund, which is used to help with emergency veterinary care, but the demand for help always exceeds our resources. (Donations to the McVitie Fund are currently being doubled in value, thanks to a challenge grant.)
While Miley’s story had a happy ending, it illustrates the dangers of buying dogs, especially when there are homeless dogs languishing in shelters. For information on our ‘Adopt, don’t buy’ campaign click here.
by Debra Probert, VHS Executive Director
Gosha, a handsome ginger with white markings, was rescued as a tiny kitten in Jerusalem, where homeless cats number in the tens of thousands. Gosha’s guardian had moved there from Canada and was appalled at the sheer numbers and the terrible condition of Israel’s ‘street cats’.
It was shocking to learn how the cats must forage for food in dumpsters, and are often considered, and treated like, vermin. As I look around at my five rescued cats, dozing peacefully, I can’t imagine them living in the streets and eating garbage every day.
Gosha was pulled from under a bus; a dirty, pathetic little ragamuffin who barely resembled a kitten. When found, both of his eyes were swollen shut; scarred, misshapen and sightless. After massive doses of antibiotics and hours of veterinary care, he was turned over to his new guardian, who was told to isolate him for 10 days. That 10 days changed her life, as she found Gosha was, in her words, “so incredibly cute, smart and brave, and so appreciative.”
When Gosha’s guardian found herself back in Canada and out of work, she was unable to pay for food and medication for this little guy, who has survived so much. He only sees out of one eye and has a chronic eye condition and allergies, requiring medications each day. But with his meds, he’s healthy and happy.
Everyone needs a little help now and then, and that’s why VHS here – to offer a helping hand that will enable beloved companion animals to stay in their homes, rather than be turned over to a shelter, or worse, for the lack of a few dollars. In fact, our McVitie Fund was established by one of our supporters in memory of a special ginger boy named McVitie. When McVitie became ill, his guardian couldn’t help but think about what it would be like if he couldn’t look after him. He wanted to ensure that others would get the help they needed for their animal friends in an emergency.
My five cats are all rescued and all have medical issues. One of them, Nat, is curled up on my lap as I write. He keeps nudging my elbow so that I’ll stop and stroke him. He gazes up at me with unconditional love and trust. I can’t imagine what I would do if I found myself without the means to buy his food and medicine. Will you help bolster our fund by donating today?
Our emergency help program is only one of many ways we help animals. Elsewhere on our website, you can learn about our work for animals abused at the Calgary Stampede, for egg laying hens and for captive and performng animals. We’ve been tremendously successful in changing attitudes about the treatment of animals.
Because of your support, VHS has grown into a force to be reckoned with, because we speak for you, and you care deeply about what happens to animals. Please help us continue to be there for animals who so desperately need our help.