June 21, 2018

Helping our Friends

Fox kits in the care of the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary

You’ve got to have friends, the song goes. And at the OHS, we are lucky to have so many good friends. There is simply no way that we could care for the close to 10,000 animals that need us every year without our friends: amazing volunteers, community-minded veterinarians, donors committed to the animals and so many more. In fact, thousands of friends help make the OHS work for the animals and for our community.

One element of our current strategic plan is to support our friends — our partnerships and the partners themselves. As a part of this, I recently made my now annual trek to visit the Wild Bird Care Centre and the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary to meet and discuss how the relationship is going and what the OHS can do to help out. Both are key partners of the OHS and indispensable elements of the animal welfare continuum in Ottawa. Since the OHS does not have the facilities, skills or resources to rehabilitate wildlife and birds, we rely on these two friends. Without these two organizations, the situation for wild animals in Ottawa would look pretty bleak. And we feel that it is a part of our responsibility to help them out where we can.

Both organizations are small, often struggle and operate on a shoestring. Both care for a huge number of animals with nowhere else to go. Their work is very seasonal, and like the OHS, the numbers of animals needing their care rises dramatically in the spring and summer months, and doesn’t abate until the snow starts falling.

I am grateful for the friendship of both these organizations, for their hard work and for their commitment to animals. If you aren’t already familiar with them, I hope that you will take the time to learn more about them and their work. I think you will be grateful too.

Bruce Roney
Executive Director