THUNDER BAY — The revving of motorcycles and the smell of hot dogs cooking on a barbecue filled the Thunder Bay Harley-Davidson's parking lot for the second annual Ruff Ride on Sunday.
The Road Angels Thunder Bay, a lady motorcycle riding group, sponsored the fundraiser with Hands to Paws North in support of the Global Alliance for Animals and People (GAAP) on Sunday.
GAAP travels to Northern Ontario to undertake spay and neuter clinics in First Nation communities.
This year, the hour and 45-minute Ruff Ride was helping to sponsor a clinic planned in Wapekeka First Nation in September.
"We are here today to support the Ruff Ride," said Mandy Craig, the Road Angels Thunder Bay's president and founder.
"We're going to have a ride out the highway. We're going to end up out at… Kakabeka Falls. Finish up out there and, rain or shine, we're here to shine on and have a good time."
Without organizations like the Road Angels Thunder Bay, Nikki Burns, a Hands to Paws North volunteer, said these kinds of clinics wouldn't be able to happen.
They're raising amazing money for them, she added.
"Everybody that works at the clinic volunteers their time, but there's still an enormous cost to actually get teams and medication up north," said Burns.
For fly-in communities like Wapekeka, she explained that it could cost up to $40,000 for transportation for the veterinary teams as there are numerous veterinarians, veterinary technicians and volunteers, along with all the medication and everything needed for the clinic.
"In order to get help for communities in the north, fundraising with events like this is absolutely critical," said Burns.
"Sometimes I think people... don't realize how severe first of all the problem is up there without veterinarians and they don't think about the cost of what it would possibly take to actually get Veterinarians up there."
She added that having clinics like this is absolutely critical for the health, welfare and safety of the communities and their animals.
"None of the communities in the far north or even north of Thunder Bay have access to veterinary care. It creates all kinds of crazy, crazy problems, from aggression in animals to overpopulation to diseases and so on. And some of those diseases can be transmitted to people," said Burns.
Already, the clinic has received aid, including from the community, fundraisers in Thunder Bay, Cat Lake Friends of Animush fundraisers in Southern Ontario and the GAAP, which has fundraised to help cover the cost of supplies and flights in addition to its veterinary team donating their time.
In turn, without a set entry, the Ruff Ride continued to provide people with the opportunity to donate further by donating to win door prize tickets, purchasing food at its barbecue and buying Ruff Ride t-shirts for their first year.
However, Pamela Cowie, also a volunteer with Hands to Paws North and part of the Harley Owners Group Thunder Bay, said it's really hard to tell how much the Ruff Ride will raise.
"With the weather not being ideal, we're not going to get probably as many riders out. If we could raise a couple $1000 that would be great. Everything counts in the end," said Cowie.
