THUNDER BAY — In its first week running a veterinary field hospital in Thunder Bay, Vets Around the Corner has also made two trips to Whitesand First Nation and Armstrong to rescue pets left behind during evacuations from the wildfires in the region.
Vets Around the Corner (VAC) came to Thunder Bay from Port Perry, Ont., last weekend to set up a veterinary hospital in Thunder Bay’s Grandview Arena, having already treated more than 100 animals since its arrival.
“We drove up to Armstrong and Whitesand First Nation, and when people found out that we were going up there, we were getting messages asking us to break into their homes to get their pets,” said William Woodstock, the CEO of VAC and the founder and board chair of their community veterinarian program.
“In many cases they had run out of food and water, so we have them and we’ll be taking care of them,” he said.
Cliff Redford owns Wellington Vet Hospital in Markham, Ont., and joined VAC for their project in Thunder Bay. He said that after the rescue missions, they either brought animals back in their ambulance or helped put them on a plane supplied by Northern Reach Rescue.
The team rescued about 25 animals from the area from the two communities.
“You have hundreds, if not thousands of animals in some of these communities, and when people have to leave, they have to either rush out with them and they don’t have time to take their medication, or they have to leave them behind,” Woodstock said.
“So, rescue organizations go in and get them, and then what do you do with them?”
The field hospital has an animal reception, triage treatment, and hospitalization areas, with teams of vets, technicians, assistants and other support staff. They’re also working with the OSPCA and Humane Society for other surgeries, if needed.
Redford said that throughout the week they’ve seen about 30 to 40 animals per day.
“Some as simple as giving them vaccines so that they could be protected and then safely given to temporary foster homes while the families deal with their own situations,” he said.
“And then we’ve dealt with some lacerations, some animals with burns,” he added.
They’ve also made trips to hotels with evacuation centres like the Superior Inn to treat people’s pets there.
Redford said they plan to stay at least another seven to 10 days. They will be at the arena until at least Tuesday, and if that’s not extended, they will find another primary location.
According to Woodstock, before coming to Thunder Bay, he spoke to Ontario Corps, who discussed potentially integrating veterinary medicine into emergency response deployments.
“One of the things that I learned doing all the courses that I did with Emergency Management Ontario and FEMA, is that there isn’t really any resource for veterinarians to deploy to forward assist like this in these situations and so this was something that we were already working on a little while ago,” added Woodstock.
“Pet owners don’t want to leave their homes, until they know their animals are going to be cared for,” said Redford. “Responses like this is something that needs to be considered in future events.”
VAC and the teams accompanying them are entirely donation-based and not for profit, with the exception of the city’s donation of Grandview Arena as a temporary space. According to Woodstock, they can go through at least $10,000 in supplies in a day. They are accepting donations through a GoFundMe.
