At the Alberta SPCA, removing healthy, happy pets from loving homes and re-homing them isn’t something we normally do. Our focus remains on animal protection and ensuring owners provide for their animals appropriately. But sometimes we have to help the people before we can help the animals. This is one of those stories.
Going into the situation, the only thing our Animal Protection Services knew was that the owners were moving in three days and they couldn’t take all of their animals with them.
When she arrived, our Peace Officer was greeted by a woman in a wheelchair who was clearly distressed at having to part with her dogs. As she cried, one of her dogs became agitated as well, and started barking and panting.
A neighbour who was over helped load the first dog, Max, into the truck. But Max had never been on a leash and put up a struggle. The Peace Officer was able to reassuringly wrap a coat around the dog and place him safely in a crate in the truck.
While this was going on, the neighbour explained the string of misfortunes the elder owners had faced, including a home fire and a serious illness that meant they had to get to multiple medical appointments in the city each week. Their ages and their medical issues required them to sell their home and move into an apartment in town – an apartment that would only allow one dog. And now they were watching two of their best friends being led away.
