A society, disbanding after six years of helping horses, has donated to the Nanaimo B.C. SPCA’s large animal barn.
On Monday members of the Hope for Horses Society of B.C. handed over a $4,000 cheque to Leon Davis, Nanaimo B.C. SPCA branch manager.
“This donation of $4,000 puts us at about $211,000 of our target of $350,000,” Davis said.
The barn will be constructed on B.C. SPCA land on Westwood Road and have multiple stalls for horses, pigs and other large animals and storage. Davis said it will allow the SPCA to bring horses and other farm animals there for care and treatment in emergency situations rather than trying to find boarding facilities in the community.
The Hope for Horses Society of B.C. was formed in 2011 with a mission statement to aid and distribute funds to equines in need. Its volunteers have raised about $30,000 plus in-kind donations to help horses on the Island and elsewhere in the province, which has included supplying horse blankets and transportation for horses. It also helped with expenses for feed and other necessities for horses in cases where owners needed temporary financial assistance, helped cover costs for euthanasia and its members even hosted seminars to help guide people through special situations, such as when horses are no longer wanted.
The Nanaimo-based society is closing because its core members, about four or five in all, are no longer in positions to be able to donate the hours for fundraising and other society functions necessary to keep it operating.
“There’s been basically four of us running it for about the last five years and no one has really stepped take over the reins … it seems the community itself is stepping in now, we find,” said Vickie Stone, society president. “Let’s say, if there’s been a fire or, you know, there’s been a need for horses to be helped, we find the community has stepped in and provided hay and grain or those sorts of things.”
Davis plans to have the Nanaimo SPCA barn completed in 2020.
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