The Swift Current SPCA appeared at yesterday’s Governance & Priorities Committee meeting, with a plea for the donation of the City’s land on which the facility sits, as well as news of fundraising for a new building.  

Each year, more than 400 cats and dogs move through its doors and community members count on the SPCA Swift Current for life-changing services for animals. Sadly, that number could be much larger as the animals' wait list has ballooned in the last few years. The current capacity means hundreds of furry friends are turned away. Fundraising is in the works to make a new building with a higher capacity and other features to improve the services. 

SPCA Capital Fundraising Campaign Manager Joan Wolfe spoke to city councillors about the need for a new building. 

“The SPCA has a long history in serving its citizens and wants to continue to do so, by continuing to provide education, adoptions, and spay and neutering programs. We would like to offer more services to the community in the near future, including more space for animals, crematorium services and potentially, a veterinary clinic on-site or a boarding facility. The solution is a larger shelter at its existing location in the industrial area of Swift Current. “ 

Crematorium services would be brand new for Swift Current, as all pet cremation right now must be outsourced to bigger centres such as Saskatoon, Regina, and Prince Albert. A veterinary clinic inside of the facility would allow the SPCA to avoid transporting to other locations for operations such as spaying and neutering, or deal with even more complicated issues like broken or dislocated bones. 

To make the fundraising work, representatives stated that the land which Swift Current leases to the non-profit needs to be fully donated. The location where the facility rests is the property of the city. 

David Zammit, a member of the Swift Current SPCA board of directors spoke at the meeting alongside Wolfe. 

“The ultimate reason is that we're going to enter a capital campaign and we're asking the public to donate for us to build a building,” Zammit explained. “We would rather not have us default on a brand-new build facility that would then become the City’s. Let's say we spend $5,000,000 on building a facility and then couldn't pay for it. If it was built on leased land, it would just fall into the hands of the City, and we would not be able to have a say in what the city does with it. I'm sure they would have good intentions with the building, but it would just go against us asking the community to donate to us.” 

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