An advocate in Alberta has launched a petition asking that the Alberta goverment follow B.C.’s lead in considering pets as more than property under family law.
The provincial government in B.C. made changes to the Family Law Act this past January. With these changes, pets are no longer treated as “property” in divorce and separation proceedings, recognizing their safety, well-being, and place as part of the family.
Animals still considered property under Canadian Law
Animals are still considered property under federal law. The Vancouver Humane Society, along with animal protection organizations and experts across the country, is calling on the federal government to recognize animals as sentient beings with a new petition.
Can you support this important initiative and help strengthen legal protections for animal well-being?
Should you have any trouble making a donation on this page, please click here. In the Message to VHS portion of the donation form, you can write McVitie to let us know this gift is for animals in need of urgent care.
Sweet young Copper is full of life and loves to climb everything he can find. Sadly, his curiosity landed him in a difficult situation recently when his guardian, Janine, came home one day to find that he was limping on his back leg. After a trip to the vet for some X-rays, it was determined that Copper’s femur is badly broken. Janine believes he likely fell from a high surface while climbing. Copper currently has very limited mobility and is experiencing a great deal of pain.
Due to the severity of the break, the vet has recommended a full amputation to mitigate the risk of a potentially life-threatening infection occurring. As a senior on pension, Janine is unable to afford this costly procedure. She knows it is the safest route of treatment to ensure that Copper lives a happy and full life. With help from the Vancouver Humane Society’s McVitie program, Copper will get the care he needs as soon as possible.
Can you donate today toward the surgery that will help Copper get back to moving around and enjoying life?
Your gift helps us say YES to pets in need of life-saving care today
Should you have any trouble making a donation on this page, please click here. In the Message to VHS portion of the donation form, you can write McVitie to let us know this gift is for animals in need of urgent care.
The sad truth is, we can’t keep up
Every day, animal guardians desperate to save their pets’ lives reach out to the Vancouver Humane Society’s McVitie Fund program for urgent veterinary support. With applications to the McVitie Fund having increased more than tenfold since 2020, demand has far outstretched the donations we’re able to bring in to help animals in need.
Recently we spent $1,600 to help sweet Lily, a dog who required emergency care. I’m sharing Donna and Lily’s story with you in the hope that you can help retroactively cover the cost of Lily’s care so we can continue saying yes to more animals like her today.
Donna’s application to the McVitie Fund struck me deeply. Her words—“I really need help. I’m praying that we can get help”—echoed with such raw urgency and fear. I could almost feel her trembling hands and racing heart as she typed them.
Donna explained in her application that she is a senior who struggles with her health and lives paycheque to paycheque on disability payments.
When a friend could no longer care for Lily, Donna happily offered to take the darling pup into her home. Lily has since become fast friends with Donna’s cat, Stripey, and Donna’s daughter, Katie. Katie has special needs and lives with and is cared for by Donna.
Donna rushed to the vet having noticed a dip in Lily’s energy along with bloody-looking discharge. There she learned Lily was suffering from a pyometra infection.
The chance of a pyometra infection resolving itself without surgery is extremely low, and if surgery is not performed quickly, the infection will often prove fatal. I called Donna and the vet to let them know, yes, we will cover the cost of Lily’s life-saving surgery.
A few days later Donna called me, her voice full of joy and relief. She let me know that Lily was recovering well from her surgery. Both Katie and Stripey had rushed to greet Lily with kisses as soon as she got home.
Through tears of gratitude Donna said, “a million thank yous are not enough for what you have done, and my gratitude will never be enough! Thank you for saving my Lily!“
Donna’s plea is mine too: on behalf of low-income pet guardians across B.C. who find their pets in crisis, can you help? Could you spare any amount and be the reason a pet returns home healthy this fall?
With gratitude, Brooklyn Fowler-Moros, Program Manager – McVitie Fund
“Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, we will help.” – Jane Goodall
In this month’s episode of The Informed Animal Ally, Alistair Schroff of Lakes Animal Friendship Society discusses the importance of education for animal well-being, and other successes, challenges, and opportunities in animal organizations.
Featured Guest: Alistair Schroff
Founder, Lakes Animal Friendship Society
Alistair Schroff helped create Lakes Animal Friendship Society with teacher Valerie Ingram and former RCMP officer Hayley Nielsen in 2008. LAFS focusses on education about animal care, compassion and dog bite safety as well as supports for pets from lower-income families including spay / neuter, pet food and all-weather outdoor shelters. Alistair’s roles include community cat trapper, handy person, chauffeur, proposal writer, dishwasher, bookkeeper, and dabbler in children’s book writing.
Note: This written discussion has been edited for length.
Hi, my name is Alistair Schroff, and I work with a group called the Lakes Animal Friendship Society. Most of our activities are delivered around the town of Burns Lake, which is in the central interior of British Columbia. In talking to you about some of the good, the bad, and the ugly of what we do and what we’ve experienced, I’ll go with two themes, which I hope you’ll find at least somewhat interesting and informative.
First of all, I want to talk about education because that to us is one of the cornerstones that should be in place for any animal welfare group and programs pretty well anywhere that one should care to help animals, their families, and the community.
And on the topic of education, Jane Goodall has a good quote, which goes, only if we understand, shall we care only if we care, shall we help. And only if we help shall all be saved.
And that’s a good little prompt, which basically says we have to know more about what it means to care for animals and even why should we care about animals?
And that’s where education comes in. And that is truly one of our biggest successes as a society.
The Lakes Animal Friendship Society is small with only a few key volunteers. Of course, we get help from others, but it’s a fairly small group. Yet we’ve managed to create education programs that are becoming known as being quite comprehensive and effective in helping children in particular, learn about what it means to be more caring, more compassionate and safe around animals.
And to that end, we’ve created a number of picture books, activity books, things like coloring books and miscellaneous stuff like teaching guides and even how to build dog houses to help animals that might be left out in the cold. So those programs that we’ve delivered are really what we think is our biggest success.
And we are very proud of the thousands of students that we’ve been able to visit directly, often with Valerie Ingram, our volunteer who’s a teacher and who has taken a dog into the classroom and helped kids learn a lot more about what it means to even see that animals have feelings and that their needs are so similar to those of the students and those messages have really helped open the eyes of the students.
And of course, through their communication with their families and them going out into the community, they’ve been little ambassadors of change.
And we are really proud of everything that they’ve done to kind of elevate the care for their own animals and also create a more normalized environment where animals are known to have feelings and are worthy of care. They’re not sort of a misunderstood nuisance or a threat as they were before we started our programs, when they’re coming on to the school yards and stealing children’s lunches because of lack of proper care, overpopulation issues that really come back to a lack of understanding of what animals need and what we can do about it.
Practical resources for people and pets
So in addition to providing these education opportunities, we also were very careful to provide access to the tools to implement that new knowledge. And that was where we’ve had our spay/neuter programs to help animals from lower income families. And we’ve also worked with pet food programs which now we operate in cooperation with the local food bank.
And basically if the children and the families feel that it’s a better thing to have their pet spayed or neutered that they can in turn find access to that service in a manner they can afford and they can actually get it done.
So through those programs, that’s our second big success is the actual results of the education being implemented, the tools being there and actively spaying and neutering over a thousand animals in a fairly short period of time. Offering houses like shelters for animals that could not be brought into the house, even though indoors is best, if they can’t be inside, at least they have proper four season shelter.
And of course, access to the pet food they need. So nobody goes hungry, either the families or the animals themselves.
Making a difference in the community
And what we found is after we implemented our programs for a few years, the results were really, really amazing. And when I say that, I mean impoundments of the local village pound dropped to perhaps 10 percent of what they were before.
And this is a savings of tens of thousands, now adding up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the local village for the animal control area. Further to that, and this is really important children not getting bitten by dogs. Often it’s children who suffer dog bites. Often they get bit on the face and it can be very serious.
Many children in Canada have sadly been killed in dog attacks. And we found that after implementing our programs for a few years, that the number of dog bites reported to the local ER dropped to about half of what they were previously. And so that’s many, many more kids that are not being scared, bitten, seriously hurt by dogs, often the family dog, often a friend’s dog.
So it’s a much healthier relationship for all, and we want to keep everybody safe.
And we get encouraging stories, people on the street saying, Oh, they saw some kids that were looking at a dog across the street and they asked their mother, you know, may I please pet the dog or ask their uncle or whichever adult they were with to make sure they had permission, getting permission from the guardian and really implementing the safe behaviour.
So the whole point is to normalize what is helpful and healthful and safe for all. So those are some examples of our successes, but there are some challenges as always. And on the education front it’s been interesting to us.
Challencges in animal organizations
We’ve had some big success, but you know, some slow uptake in our own community, adjacent communities even though our programs have been kind of proven, sometimes education is not given the priority that it should be, and from our experience, not just what we think, but what we know from our programs.
So typically, sheltering gets most of the funding in animal welfare, spay and neuter assistance, those kinds of programs, a lesser amount. Education is by far the most under resourced and under supported, under implemented programs that we see in animal welfare.
And so that continues to be an issue that we see in Canadian and really animal welfare in many places. Education is the last priority and really it needs to be the first.
The other issue we’ve seen is regression as many societies have reported. Very recently we heard Victoria Humane Society and others on Vancouver Island saying what we have found in the interior which is demand for services increased, costs have increased, and we feel a large regression.
And we’re seeing similar types of animal overpopulation, danger, and nuisance to the community. So there is some definite regression there. So that has been a challenge.
COVID has accelerated that, but interestingly, we were seeing the trends before that even. We were a victim of our own success to some extent, because as the overpopulation issue became more under control, then we made a very, very lucrative market for puppy mills and backyard breeders.
So therefore there were hardly any dogs to be found. It’s difficult. There are shelters, but they’re not right in the community. People want easy access to whatever they want. And so in the case of pets, it made a market for backyard breeders and puppy mills.
So that was an unforeseen circumstance. And so therefore we see that you need to have the bylaws, the enforcement tools that don’t seem like a big priority when everything is going well.
And so that is something that we’ve learned and would like to share with others is having good plans in place to keep things on the right track, even while things are going well. So that’s a cautionary note.
Opportunities for the future
On the topic of hope and good things coming for the future, we have had some great success in working with other groups. For example, this activity book was updated and revised in cooperation with the San Diego Humane Society.
We’ve worked with a local translator. And we’ve done similar groups with adjacent community of Prince George and their aboriginal education department producing materials not just, showing diverse communities and northern themes but also even in the local carrier dialect in Burns Lake or the carrier dialect of the Lheidi T’enneh in the Prince George area.
And Veterinarians Without Borders have even translated some of the same materials into Inuktitut for local dialects in the Arctic. So we’ve managed to work with some groups to extend the reach of these education materials and get them out there.
And the adoption of those materials in other parts internationally has far exceeded even in British Columbia or Canada. So we’re very encouraged because ultimately they’re in the hands of children. I want to also talk about other things about partnerships.
So when we talk about encouraging things happening in other aspects of our animal welfare programs, we’re working with a group called the CARE Network out of Tofino. And so we do very similar programs to each other. So we’re working on teaming up and joining forces and making our resources and efforts go further in the areas of animal care, veterinary services, education.
So we both have strengths that we can bring to the table and we need to do more of that as animal welfare groups , find out who is similarly aligned, just go for it. Roll up your sleeves and go to work.
And on the education front, a similar thing, we don’t always have success with the communities that we would like, but if we run into teachers or librarians or homeschoolers or other groups anybody that is sort of aligned with wanting to get resources in the hands of children, we want to support that.
And so if you basically find people who are pushing the same direction as you are, get together, go for it, make it happen. And you might have bigger goals you shouldn’t lose sight of.
A woman by the name of Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, very well spoken, has a great saying which is just because you can’t do everything, don’t do nothing. Do something, anything.
And that means, find out what you can do today that is workable. Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture, but just get to work and do what you can.
Some of you may have seen some YouTube videos of a fellow known as the guerrilla gardener. And he says, you know, you want to help bring a shovel and yeah, that’s the kind of people you want to work with.
People who are ready to make things happen. So find them, get teamed up, make things happen in your communities and yeah, just find out who’s willing to work with you and go for it. And that’s really the essence of Lakes Animal Friendship Society.
And we hope that you will take advantage of the free materials that are available on our website, lakesanimalfriendship.ca/resources. There’s materials, songs, links to videos, and that’s all available for free. We also have other materials available for order, but you can also contact us for free samples. And also we have worked with groups to get their logos on materials or adapt them like we did with Marika and Vets Without Borders.
There’s some stuff that didn’t quite fit an arctic environment and it was modified to fit. So we love working with folks and getting consistent quality materials out wherever they are needed. And so see what we can do to work with you. So if you have some ideas for translations, changes, whatever, we’ve got the flexibility to do those things and would like to see them in the hands of children and their families.
So being able to give children something tangible that they can take home and share with their families is really important and allows, if you are doing classroom programs, it gives something that the teachers can use and expand on lessons or expand on messages that have been shared and then ultimately go home to share with the whole family which ripples through the community.
So, it’s all about spreading that ripple of care and compassion. So, thank you very much for listening to my very long discussion. And I hope that everybody listening and watching this is enjoying their efforts to help the animals. And even when there are setbacks or problems, you can always dust yourself off and find a new way to get things done.
You just have to keep soldiering on. So thank you and have a lovely day.
Next episode
Please join us next month to learn about successes, challenges, and opportunities from vegan business owners!
Brittney and her son love to guess what their chatty cat, Bodie, is trying to say with his delightful chirps and playful meows.
When a much different noise, a loud and desperate crying, startled both Brittney and her son awake, they immediately knew something was wrong. Rushing to Bodie’s side, they found him straining in his litter box. Bodie looked up at his guardians with wide, terrified eyes.
At the veterinary clinic, Bodie was treated for a urinary obstruction that didn’t resolve itself. Vets have urgently recommended bloodwork and x-rays to determine whether Bodie needs surgery.
Brittney is a single mother who fiercely devotes herself to caring for both her son and Bodie. Brittney’s son is experiencing challenges that require full-time care and leave Brittney unable to work. Having already spent more than $1,000 on Bodie’s initial treatment, Brittney has no additional funds to spare. Can you donate today toward Bodie’s urgent medical care?
An anonymous donor is currently generously matching all donations toward the VHS’s McVitie Fund, up to $25,000! This means your donation to help Bodie will have double the impact.
Read or watch the story on Global News: As animal shelters across the country are in crisis with an overflow of animals, animal organizations are pushing to end pet restrictions in rental housing.
“A recent parliamentary petition started by Humane Canada is asking the House of Commons to include a specific provision for tenants with pets in the new Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights that was proposed in the 2024 federal budget.”
Read more about how pet-friendly rental housing helps animals and the humans who love them, and sign the petition from the Parliament of Canada website!
Canadians love, value and rely on the emotional support of their pets; yet most provinces in Canada still allow pet restrictions in rental housing that split people up from their beloved companion animals.
One of the top three reasons people surrender their pets to animal shelters is loss of suitable housing, which is increasing across the country due to national economic challenges.
Meanwhile, animal shelters across the country are in crisis and are at their capacity.
A new federal e-petition calls for legal changes to ensure tenants with pets are no longer excluded from rental housing.
Can you sign the petition help animals stay with their families?
Join MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Humane Canada, the Vancouver Humane Society, and animal organizations across the country in asking the federal government to include Canadian tenants with pets in a legally binding, nationwide Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights with a specific provision for companion animals, voiding any “no pet” clauses in tenancy agreements so that tenants with pets are no longer excluded from rental housing.
Sign the federal e-petition on the Parliament of Canada website before November 2nd at 7 am.
Important: After you sign the petition, be sure to check your email and click the confirmation link to ensure your signature is counted.
This past weekend, I was in the Downtown Eastside sharing emergency veterinary resources and handing out pet supplies as part of the Vancouver Humane Society’s Because They Matter event. The tables were laden with bright new leashes, harnesses, and toys, tempting treats, and sturdy carriers and litter boxes.
I spoke with a man who carefully fitted new shoes onto his dog’s feet, telling me how she would now be safer walking around on the sidewalks. As one person switched her dog’s collar for a well-fitting harness, she turned to me and said, “You folks are angels.” A sweet pup walked over carrying a new toy in his mouth and rested his paws on my knee when I bent down to greet him. His tail wagged until he and his smiling guardian rounded the corner out of sight.
The Downtown Eastside is one of Canada’s most placed-at risk communities, where many residents spend their days on the streets. Folks are either unhoused or seeking relief and community away from the under-resourced single room occupancy buildings (SROs) where they live. Many people are living on extremely limited incomes, like disability assistance or pensions, and can’t afford the ever-rising cost of living in our city.
In the heart of the Downtown Eastside, where life’s hardships often loom large, there’s a remarkable testament to love and resilience in the form of pet guardians. Each year, I hear stories of connection, family, sacrifice, and unconditional love from people with pets. I have heard people say they didn’t know how they would afford groceries that week, but they had bought a new bag of pet food with their last $30. In turn, their animals provide companionship and joy that helps get them through difficult days.
A youth who stopped by the event shared that she had been precariously housed with roommates for several months. Recently, she lost her housing because of having a dog. She chose to keep her beloved companion with her rather than to be housed without him. She is not alone in this difficult decision; unhoused individuals who have pets are often forced to choose between shelter and their animal companions and, as a result, are more likely to sleep unsheltered than those without pets.
For a long time, a common public opinion has been that pet guardianship should be limited to people deemed wealthy enough to “afford” it. But human-animal families come in all shapes, sizes, and income levels. The “don’t get a pet if you can’t afford the vet” mentality ignores circumstances beyond a pet guardian’s control, while dismissing the profound trauma that both pets and their guardians can be subject to when forced to separate. It also does not account for the many animals who come into their guardians’ lives unplanned.
One couple I spoke with had taken in a dog and her litter of puppies twelve years earlier from a friend who could no longer care for them. They spent long nights caring for the newborns and ensuring they were all receiving enough food. Eventually, they rehomed all but one of the dogs. The runt of the litter, Remy-Roo, became like their own baby. When she was afflicted with a life-threatening pyometra infection before they had a chance to have her spayed, they scraped together funds for her emergency surgery. As I saw the three of them together, Remy-Roo snuggled into them, licked their faces, and looked at them like they were her whole world. Her bright eyes and slightly greying fur spoke of a lifetime of happy memories.
Their story – taking in a pet from someone who didn’t have the capacity to keep their animal at home anymore – was echoed by nearly everyone I spoke with at Because They Matter. A man had taken in a cat from his ailing mother. A woman was regularly watching and walking a dog whose senior guardian had limited mobility. A man cared for his neighbour’s dog each time she had to work.
Research tells us that this phenomenon is well understood by people from low-income communities. In a recent study, one participant stated, “A lot more people who live in poverty or are low-income are more willing to rescue animals, because there’s this greater sense of community.”
This mutual aid within the community is sorely needed. In the wake of rising costs of living, people living in poverty face a growing number of barriers to keeping their pets. Financial struggles continue to be one of the top reasons people surrender their pets to shelters. And with animal shelters across Canada still struggling to meet the surge in demand, there is often nowhere for animals to go.
The solution for animals in loving, low-income families is not to hand them off to people with more resources, but to make more resources available to the people who already care for them.
The Vancouver Humane Society’s McVitie Fund program is one such resource. The program provides life-saving veterinary support to pet guardians living on a low income, saving them from the heart-wrenching decision of watching their pet suffer or giving them up to get the help they need to survive. Demand for the program has skyrocketed over the past five years, rising from about one animal helped each week in 2019 to an average of 15 each week in 2024.
The stories I heard this weekend are a testament to the deep, unwavering commitment that loving guardians in the Downtown Eastside have to their animals, despite facing their own hardships. These animals are essential members of the community; they are family members who provide love, companionship, and a sense of purpose.
By embracing a culture of empathy and support, we can ensure that these human-animal families stay together, because they matter.
Loui's guardian told us how much Louis loves to run around, but that sometimes the pavement can be hard on his paws. Louis was able to get some new boots, a rain jacket, and more!
Several hundred residents of the Downtown Eastside community visited the Because They Matter table in Pigeon Park on Sunday, July 21, all eager to pick up high-quality supplies for their beloved pets. Event participants also spoke with many pet guardians about accessing the VHS’s free veterinary care assistance program.
Each person who connected with the team had a unique journey, and all had incredible bonds with their pets.
Here are some of the amazing people and pets who visited the Vancouver Humane Society’s table in Pigeon Park and shared their shared their stories of resilience and unconditional love.
King Loui was excited about the treats and food available at the Because They Matter table this year.
The Because They Matter event participants helped table visitors find the pet supplies they needed for their beloved companions.
Bill told us that his cat Angel saved his life. He also said that Angel provides comfort to a lot of the folks on the DTES.
A sweet pup poses with their guardian after receiving a new harness from the Because They Matter table.
This beautiful dog was eager to make new friends at the Because They Matter table. She got a stylish new jacket, some treats and food, and a brand new collar.
This lovely dog's guardian carefully tried on different harnesses to make sure they found the perfect fit.
Loui's guardian told us how much Louis loves to run around, but that sometimes the pavement can be hard on his paws. Louis was able to get some new boots, a rain jacket, and more!
Mr. Brady's guardian told us Mr. Brady has healed many people's souls. Him and Zelda are their guardian's pride and joy.
Some of the VHS team before the event wrapped up.
Angel the cat spent some time cuddling with Because They Matter volunteers while her guardian picked up some new cat toys for her!
Remy-Roo and her guardians.
There was a long line-up to get to the Because They Matter tables this year!
Many visitors to the Because They Matter table knew Chanel the dog and her guardian. She's a friendly and popular member of the community.
Prev
Next
In all, the VHS team and event participants handed out thousands of pet supplies and hundreds of pamphlets about the Vancouver Humane Society’s veterinary assistance program.
The VHS’s veterinary support program helps animals get the care they need while staying with their loving families. The need for this program is growing every year, and it is essential that this need is met to make sure loved animals get the care they require without having to be surrendered to the already overflowing shelter and rescue system. The VHS’s veterinary support program is only possible through the help of donations from animal lovers like you.
Can you make a donation toward VHS’s $15,750 Because They Matter fundraising goal to help animals and the people who love them?
Help Nylah recover from dangerous bleach poisoning!
Nylah is a sweet young dog with a penchant for adventure. Unfortunately, this has landed her in a difficult situation as she accidentally got into a cupboard and knocked over a bottle of bleach. Her guardian, Hope, made sure to clean up the spill and wash Nylah’s body thoroughly. She was advised to monitor her for any adverse symptoms.
Nylah initially seemed unharmed, but closer to the end of the day she began displaying symptoms of discomfort followed by vomiting and a bloody bowel movement. Hope rushed Nylah to the emergency vet where they found that she is suffering from pancreatitis due to toxicity.
Hope is a full-time student who is also the caretaker and guardian for her family. Her limited funds mean she is unable to afford the costly in-hospital care that Nylah needs.
An anonymous donor is currently generously matching all donations toward the VHS’s McVitie Fund, up to $25,000! This means your donation will have double the impact.Can you donate today toward Nylah’s life-saving medical care?