Pet Rescue Shelter needs help to finance move to new home

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This article was published 05/09/2022 (1460 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s first non-profit no-kill animal shelter is moving after struggling to make ends meet since a vehicle crashed into its building earlier this year.

The Winnipeg Pet Rescue Shelter had been in its 3062 Portage Ave. location for more than 23 years when a vehicle slammed into the retail area of their shelter in the morning hours of Feb. 25. No one, including animals, was hurt. As the shelter doesn’t own the building, the responsibility for repairs went to the owner.

Six months later, the damage remains.

“Losing our retail area has caused us great financial hardship, so we made the decision to move the shelter, so that we can have a good retail area again, which I’m excited about,” Carla Martinelli-Irvine, the shelter’s founder and organizer, said.

The shelter will be moving to the Courts of St. James mall, taking over the old Salisbury House location at 2727 Portage Ave. The goal is to move in mid-October, Martinelli-Irvine said, but the cost to get there is one they’re still struggling to pay.

“On a one out of 10, with 10 being the worst, we’re at 11,” she said. “We’re desperately seeking donations to help us with this move.”

Between the profits lost from the shut-down retail centre (which at the time of the crash accounted for around 50 per cent of the Winnipeg Pet Rescue Shelter’s income), to the costs of moving, enclosure improvements and animal care, Martinelli-Irvine wagered the shelter would need $100,000 to break even.

“For a shelter of my size, that’s just immense. We need help, we’ve got money saved for the move, we’ve been saving since we realized that we were going to have to, but we don’t have a lot,” she said.

“And it gets sucked up very quickly, all you need is one animal to come in and have a surgery of $5,000 or $7,000, and it goes very, very quickly.”

The move will bring new improvements to the shelter — many of the enclosures its cats and dogs were staying in previously were more than 20 years old, and the old location was “overflowing” with pets as they continued to take in animals while planning the move.

It’s another blow to a shelter that, like others across the city, struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic with drops in donations and animals being adopted and returned, volunteer Shirley Carriere said.

“It is a challenging environment to work there, and to volunteer there because of space and the need,” she said.

Those moved to help out can give their time, Carriere said, a valuable resource while staff rush to prepare for the move.

“I think the biggest thing is knowing that any time that they can give to the shelter is time well spent,” she said. “Regardless if it’s only one day a week or a few hours that they can come in and assist, if that’s something they’re interested in, it’s a huge help to the facility.”

Martinelli-Irvine said the shelter has reached out to businesses for corporate support to help fund larger aspects of the move, but the shelter is still in dire need of financial donations.

“For me, there is no ‘what if’ scenario. It’s got to happen, so I’m banking on that it will happen,” she said.

“I’m hoping that Winnipeggers will step up and help us with this wonderful transition for the animals. They’re my No. 1 priority, and we will make it happen, come heck or high water.”

The Winnipeg Pet Rescue Shelter is taking donations at petrescueshelter.com, via e-transfer at carla@wpgpet.ca, or in-person at 3062 Portage Ave. All donations will receive a charitable tax receipt.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca