Thunder Bay Humane Society needs to send dogs south

The Thunder Bay and District Humane Society's Northern Dog Transfer Program needs help sending dogs south.

The program takes dogs from remote northern communities, as well as Red Lake, and brings them to Thunder Bay to be adopted to new owners, or sent to southern Ontario.

In the past month, the program has rescued four adult dogs and 18 puppies. All of the animals, except for six puppies, have been adopted. The remaining half dozen puppies are expected to be adopted on Thursday.

The Executive Director of the Thunder Bay and District Humane Society, Melanie Blanchette said Bearskin Airlines and Wasaya Airways have donated cargo space, when available, to bring the dogs to the city.

"So the second leg of this venture is to try and get the overwhelming amount of dogs that we have here at the Humane Society now and in the Thunder Bay community, to southern communities, to the Toronto area." she said.  "Where actually puppies and kittens are referred to as being rare in the humane societies and the OSPCA down there."

Blanchette said the humane society is looking for another airline to step in and transport the animals to the south.

She said the rescue program ensures the safety of the animals.

"To save them. They have dog days there where if you don't have your dog inside, or your dog leashed up, they'll be shot on site and they're dumped in the local landfill."