THUNDER BAY— “What we're looking at is mass community evacuations,” said Amie Kempe, president of Northern Reach Rescue Network.
“We are preparing right now for the influx of, at a single time, 80-plus dogs arriving.”
As people are evacuated from multiple First Nations threatened by forest fires across the region, the local rescue organization is working with volunteers in fly-in communities to bring dogs and cats to the city for temporary fostering or urgent veterinary care.
Thunder Bay is ready and awaiting the animals with just over 50 foster homes, said Kempe. But the need is at an all-time high and she hopes more foster volunteers will step forward.
“So far to today, we have opened up 20 new foster homes,” she said. “We are hoping to expand that even more with people responding to our welcome email and getting set up with supplies.”
“Our home is open to whoever needs a little rest, we are here to help and I'm very concerned about the fires,” said Brenda Delmas, who has volunteered to be a foster.
“We do what we can to help where we can.”
The group is also working with rescues based in southern Ontario to find forever homes for stray animals who don’t have homes to return to. A group of about 60 dogs destined for the Toronto area passed through the city on Monday evening.
“Northern dogs are so resilient,” said Kempe. “They don't even know that anything's wrong, they're so sweet.”
Meanwhile, Kempe said there is an ongoing need for food, blankets, kennels and monetary donations to support dogs in the First Nations communities while they wait for plane tickets to Thunder Bay.
“We are feeding the animals that are physically coming in, as well as sending food back up north to communities,” she said. “There are some communities that have evacuated all of the humans, but not all of the animals.”
“There's humans on the ground there that we're able to send food to (that) feed the remaining animals.”
Northern Reach Rescue is a registered charity and tax receipts will be provided for any monetary donations, Kempe said.
Anyone over the age of 18 in Thunder Bay looking to foster an evacuated pet can apply online or get more information from Northern Reach Rescue.
