THUNDER BAY - The first virtual adoption fair was not without bumps and obstacles, but staff with the Thunder Bay and District Humane Society are calling it a huge success because it help find new homes for animals in need.
“On Friday, we had two adoptions and yesterday 10 adoptions,” said Cassandra Nordal, fundraising coordinator with the Thunder Bay and District Humane Society. “It is a huge success in my opinion. It was very busy here for the staff.”
From Friday to Sunday, the Humane Society partnered with Petsmart to host a virtual adoption fair. Nordal said there were some technical issues with the streaming video and internet connection, and the fair was switched to a Facebook Live stream.
“Going forward, would we change a couple things, absolutely, it’s a learning experience,” she said. “We had to do what we had to do.”
The Humane Society hosts four adoption fairs a year and they are usually done on site and in person. However, following a recent rescue of more than 30 dogs from the region, staff decided to move the fair into the virtual sphere, with videos of the animals at the Humane Society streamed online and at Petsmart.
“This was a specific and special situation,” Nordal said. “With the massive rescue that we had the following week and it was just too high stress for the animals and we always put our animal’s health first so that is why we chose to do our first every virtual adoption fair.”
All of the 12 adoptions that took place this weekend were of dogs recently rescued from communities throughout the region, including Kenora, Shoal Lake, and Whitefish Bay. Of the 30 dogs rescued, 12 brought in from Longlac were in extreme distress and severely malnourished. Those 12 dogs were not up for adoption because they are still part of an ongoing OSPCA and OPP investigation.
Nordal said the 12 dogs from the Longlac area are doing very well, especially considering the condition they were in when they were first brought into the Humane Society.
“They are getting fed every hour on the hour, a quarter cup of food,” she said. “Their health, their mood, their overall appearance, it has all gone a long way from where they were when they came into us.”
The Thunder Bay and District Humane Society has been overwhelmed by the amount of support it has received from the community following the most recent rescue. But Nordal said with such a large influx of dogs at one time, they still need help from the community.
“We still need a lot of help,” she said. “We are just at the beginning of all this. We are still asking for your monetary donations.”
