/ /

Putting paws to the pavement

Weekend event will have many four-footed friends

Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 06:00 am | By Scott Hayes | St. Albert Gazette

Tongues and tails will be wagging like never before when a special charity event hits Lions Park on Saturday. Keep your cats away from the trails when the Second Chance Animal Rescue Society (SCARS) lets the dogs out.

This weekend will see the sixth showing of the Tails on the Trails Pawsathon put on by SCARS. This organization takes the neglected and forgotten animals of northern Alberta and gives them the care and attention that has been missing from their lives. It is not an easy job and if you look at their website, you’ll be able to read some of the stories to understand why it is so important. There’s General, a German shepherd-cross who was found with a leg shot off and his body was filled with pellets. He was saved from a certain death by starvation or other animal attacks because someone was kind enough to call SCARS to help him get three feet solidly on the ground. He’s waiting to be adopted.

Naturally all of the work performed to care for him was neither free nor cheap. The Pawsathon will accomplish a great deal in helping the organization tend to these animals and get them in the hands and homes of people who do care. Since 2002, SCARS has done this more than 2,500 times.

Last year’s event brought in about $25,000 with 125 participants. This year it will have more of a festival atmosphere with vendors and musical entertainment including Westlock’s The Kurt West Express and 16-year-old Edmonton singer Hayley Mandala Morgan.

Troy Trudgeon, director of the organizing committee, explained the situation.

“We rescue roughly 50 dogs a month and we adopt out roughly 50 dogs a month and we’re barely making a dent. We have a problem in northern Alberta and rural areas. There are extreme numbers of dogs that are roaming around that are not getting help. [Domesticated] dogs require humans to survive.”

The group hopes to bring in even more money and attention this year so it has invited members of the public, whether they have a four-legged friend with them or not, to come down to the park to see what it’s all about.

Comments

Be the FIRST to comment!

   
Got something to say? Post Comment!

You haven't entered any comments to post!

The St. Albert Gazette welcomes your opinions and comments. We reserve the right to edit comments for length, style, legality and taste and reproduce them in print, electronic or otherwise. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher.

In order to post comments on our web site, you must validate your email address. An email was sent to you when you registered that included an activation link. If you have not yet done so, please click on the link to activate your account.

If you did not receive your activation email, please click here to have it resent.

To post comments, you must login or register on stalbertgazette.com
Story URL:

Copyright © 2010 Great West Newspapers Limited Partnership. All rights reserved. The contents of this website are protected by copyright and may be used only for your personal non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved and commercial use is prohibited. To make use of any of this material you must first obtain permission of the owner of the copyright. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher.