There’s a new pilot project designed to help pets get to vets even when their owners are experiencing financial hardship.
Tails of Help has partnered with the Edmonton Humane Society to help one family per month to receive essential veterinary care for their pet due to unexpected, one-time incidents so they can keep their pet in their home.
“I think we've all faced times in life where an unexpected bill comes along and it forces us to make just a really impossible choice, like having to surrender a pet due to that illness or an injury,” said St. Albert’s Liza Sunley, the CEO of the human society.
“With this program, we'll be helping families with these challenges so that they don't have to make that difficult decision to surrender, and the bond between the human and the animal can be maintained.”
Of the nearly 500 companion animals who were surrendered into the society's care in the past 18 months, slightly more than 10 per cent of them were due to financial hardship or pet-health-related reasons.
Since 2013, Tails of Help has focused on providing aid to low-income families when their pets are sick or injured. The registered charity recently surpassed the 1,000-animal mark. It has seen a rise in the rate of people seeking its assistance, especially during the pandemic and all the economic and financial hardships that have come with it.
This partnership aims to help more people by helping more of their pets.
“We think it’s very, very positive. It has long been part of our goal to keep pets at home with owners who love them and want them and just can't take care of them. Too often, those pet owners, they're faced with devastating decisions about having to have their pets suffer without treatment, or euthanize them in some cases, or in some cases, they do surrender them to humane societies,” said Mark Patrick, president of Tails of Help.
“It's always been part of our mandate to try and keep those pets at home. It helps the pet, it helps the family, and it helps the community … reduces that burden on the humane societies. This project is one way for both of us start to work together on that aspect of it.”
Candidates for the program will be identified from the surrender requests that come into the humane society and will then be recommended to Tails of Help, which will then determine each applicant’s eligibility. Successful applications will be referred to a local veterinarian for the necessary treatment while humane society and Tails of Help will pool together to cover the costs of the care.
For Sunley, the Edmonton Humane Society is pleased to rely on the expertise and experience of Tails of Help in this matter.
“It just made sense to partner with a group that has experience with that so we're able to work together, and we're able to make direct referrals to the program for this pilot program,” she said.
The pilot program will run until the end of 2021.
