The North Peace SPCA’s new home is one step closer to fully opening this week as the last phase of renovations begin, with the construction of the dogs’ area, along with space for food preparation, HVAC and storage.
Two years in the making, the new facility, located at 10503 89 Avenue, is much more modern and spacious than the previous one, which was deemed uninhabitable in 2022. Since that time, animals which were normally looked after by the SPCA have been cared for in a variety of third-party locations in the region. Families have fostered dogs, cats, puppies, kittens, and even entire litters until they could either be adopted or transferred to other SPCA locations in British Columbia.
Currently, the North Peace SPCA is housing several cats, as that area of the new facility, along with the reception and administration area, is complete. In addition to the cat kennels, the cat adoption area also has a communal space, which is ideal for litters and their mother to play and explore, rather than being cooped up in a kennel type of environment.
“It’s certainly a comfortable space for stray and surrendered pets that are coming into our care,” said Adrienne McBride, Senior Director of Community Animal Centres for the BC SPCA in her report to City Council on March 11.
“We are doing adoptions and other administrative work out of that space,” she said. “So far this year we’ve seen 63 animals in there, 32 of which are cats and kittens.”
Construction has started on the back area of the facility, which will house dog kennels, the laundry room, food preparation area, accessible washroom and a dog exercise area. Once completed, there will be kennel space available for twelve dogs, with two for the city’s bylaw needs.
There is also a flexible space or small animal room for pets such as guinea pigs, rabbits, ferrets and chickens. Like the other animals, any chickens that come in will be adopted out as pets, not for consumption.
“Any creature could come through the door at any time,” said McBride. “Having that flexible space means if a feathered friend was out stray in the city, we’d have a space to at least respond in the short-term until we could arrange for it to be more properly housed at another location.”
For now, the SPCA is working with the North Peace Vet Clinic and the city to kennel stray dogs.
“We are using our transfer program to move them out of the area and down to Okanagan and Lower Mainland for adoption,” McBride said.
McBride expects the centre to be fully operational by the end of summer.
Running the day-to-day operation of the SPCA centre is manager Jeanine Devonshire, who accepted the position in January.
“I’m very excited to be working with the BC SPCA and the community in Fort St. John,” Devonshire told council, and invited them to contact her for a tour of the new facility.
Councillor Trevor Bolin said that he hoped that communication between the North Peace SPCA and the public would be improved going forward, noting that “there was a period in time where it was as if the SPCA was not in town, and that caused us a lot of concern.”
“People need to hear that this is happening, I think it’s a big win for the community,” said Bolin. “I look forward to it being done.”
Although there are no dogs at the centre right now, the SPCA will be happy to welcome people who would like to volunteer as dog walkers, when the dogs arrive. In the meantime, cat cuddling is something Devonshire encourages.
Anyone interested in helping out the SPCA with cat cuddling, or pet food donations can contact Jeanine Devonshire at jdevonshire@spca.bc.ca
Address for SPCA?