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Public appeal for money saves Baccalieu Trail SPCA

The Baccalieu Trail SPCA Shelter in Bay Roberts. Olivia Bradbury photo

By Olivia Bradbury / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A public appeal for financial help has landed the Baccalieu Trail SPCA with tens of thousands of dollars in donations to help keep it going.

The shelter, which opened in the fall of 2020, is located on Gullies Road in Bay Roberts. It has three full-time workers and one part-time worker. Maximum capacity at the shelter is approximately 50 animals, and most of the time it is at full capacity. Recently, the people who run the shelter found themselves facing a financial crisis that put them at risk of closing. So, they put out a public appeal for help. It resulted in tens of thousands of dollars being raised.

The shelter’s treasurer, Tony Smith, said the crisis was a perfect storm of increased operating costs for the building, increased costs of supplies, and the increased cost of vet services. He said while the general public is very generous, many people might not be able to donate as much as in the past, and fundraising events have not been as successful as hoped. That led to a situation where the shelter was costing more than it was taking in, Smith said.

It costs about $200,000 a year to operate the shelter, Smith said. The shelter has a volunteer base, he added, and if it had reached the point that it could not afford paid staff, the volunteers would likely have continued running it. But it would have been at a reduced capacity and lower intake, and services would have been greatly reduced for an extended period of time while the workers tried to figure out how to pay off the bills.

So late last month the shelter made an appeal on social media warning it was at risk of having to close its doors and desperately in need of funding. The posts included an e-mail to which people could send money transfers. In less than a week, over $20,000 was raised.

“We had no idea what the response was going to be,” said Smith, “and we’re basically overwhelmed with the generosity and there’s no danger now that we’re going to have to shut the doors even temporarily.”

The Clarenville SPCA, meanwhile, dedicated a day at its thrift store to raise money for the Baccalieu Trail shelter. The proceeds from the store’s sales, as well as donations made by customers, amounted to about $2,200.

Several small businesses in the Baccalieu Trail shelter’s area have also offered to help. Smith said the shelter received about a half dozen large donations, but that the bulk of the funds came from individuals submitting smaller amounts such as $5, $10, or $25.

Smith allowed the Baccalieu Trail shelter might be less known because it opened during the pandemic. “It was difficult to get the word out as we had to have a smaller opening than we had intended,” said Smith.

But the shelter’s base of support is slowly expanding as they do more fundraising activities, public events, and programming, Smith said. The shelter relies on Facebook to a large degree for a lot of its communications with the public, but Smith admitted many people are not on Facebook. He said the shelter has to increase its reach by finding other ways to communicate with people. “The key is to keep the lines of communications open,” he said, “because if you don’t say you need help people assume everything is fine.”

In addition to accepting donations by mail, e-mail, and at its thrift store, the shelter has an Amazon wish list account where people can order supplies to be delivered to the shelter’s post office box. They accept item donations at the shelter and thrift store, as well.

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