A major donation from members of the community is helping the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society stay on the road to help animals in need.
Executive Director Lynette Bain announced Tuesday in Windsor’s Jackson Park that the organization has reached its goal of raising $100,000 as part of its Fuel the Future campaign.
The goal was reached following a $62,000 donation from Tony and Mary Pattinson to go along with an over $30,000 anonymous donation, which kick-started the campaign.
Bain says you never know what kind of call you’re going to get, and they need to have a vehicle that’s reliable.
“The day that they contacted us, I think I yelled so loud in the shelter that everybody knew something big happened. It just made such a huge difference, it lifted a weight off our shoulders because when that came to be, we had one van go down just that week without a transmission. It couldn’t have come at a better time,” she says.
Announced in January, the campaign has been raising money to buy two new animal rescue and relief vehicles to support emergency rescues, animal welfare responses, outreach initiatives, and mobile veterinary clinics across the community.
Bain says they see anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 animals a year for several reasons, including public veterinary clinics, animal surrenders, and care for injured wildlife.
Animal Care and Protection Supervisor Preston Soucie says they service all of Windsor-Essex, and when a call comes through, they have to go to it, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Non-stop, non-stop. Luckily, we do have multiple, of course, that helps out,” he says. “It’s been tough the past couple of years when you lose a vehicle due to mechanical issues. When you have the entire area to service and only one and a half vehicles to do it, it’s tough.”
The organizations’ current vehicles are aging and unreliable given their critical role in emergency animal rescues, frontline investigations and response by animal protection officers.
Soucie says they might put 1,000 kilometres a week on each vehicle, which makes reliability such an issue when responding to all their calls.
“Anything to do with an animal, whether it’s your dog getting out in the backyard and running loose in the city or an injured raccoon or abandoned or orphan animals. Everything. Also, to community support as well, bringing animals to foster partners,” he says.
The Windsor-Essex County Humane Society is located at 1375 Provincial Road in Windsor.