New program lets northern Manitoba animal shelter vaccinate cats and dogs
Chelsea Kemp | CBC News | Posted: January 7, 2025 11:00 AM | Last Updated: January 7
Thompson and Winnipeg Humane Societies' Lay Vaccination Program aims to fill animal care gaps
Northern Manitoba rang in the new year with the shuttering of its only full-time vet clinic, but an animal rescue is hoping its new vaccination program can fill in some veterinary care gaps.
The Thompson Humane Society and Winnipeg Humane Society are working together to get more animals vaccinated against deadly diseases through the new Lay Vaccination Program. Oswald Sawh, Thompson Humane Society chair, says it's a piece of the puzzle when it comes to boosting basic animal health-care in communities.
"About two-and-a-half years ago, we had a distemper outbreak that occurred in the Thompson region. Many dogs died," Sawh said. "It could have been prevented if more animals had basic vaccinations."
The lay vaccination program allows the Thompson Humane Society to provide vaccines like distemper, parvovirus and rabies at no cost once a month starting in February. Sawh says staff will only be able to provide vaccines, and will not offer any other types of vet care.
Dr. Sara Regehr, One Health Community Outreach Veterinarian with the Winnipeg Humane Society, says the lay vaccinator pilot program is about filling gaps — especially because as of Jan. 1 there's no full-time functioning veterinary clinic in the North.
Thompson is one of about four communities the Winnipeg Humane Society is starting the lay vaccinator program pilot with. A lay vaccinator can apply to the Winnipeg Humane Society and train with a vet so they provide vaccines in their community.
Winnipeg Humane already has relationships in some rural and remote communities through its spay-neuter clinics or vaccination-wellness clinics, Regehr said. A lot of the people that the Humane Society is working with are passionate about helping the animals in their communities and are people's go-to person for first aid and resources for their pets.
"We've already developed the relationships with those people that were, ... wanting to become lay vaccinators," Regehr said.
"A lot of the people that we're working with ... are already involved in animal welfare in some role in their community."
Building stable vet care
Meanwhile, Sawh says the Thompson Humane Society wants to help build more overall stable vet care in northern Manitoba.
He says animal health-care instability hurts the shelter in two ways — it's harder getting animals adopted, but they're also finding that without widespread accessibility to spays, and neuters there are more litters of unwanted pups and kittens.
There is also a much unhealthier population of dogs and cats when there isn't widespread accessibility for vaccines.
"We're seeing those numbers increasing in communities around Thompson where you have a growing population, of unwanted dogs and cats ... because there's not enough animals that have been spayed, spayed or neutered to help control that population," Sawh said.
He says this motivated the non-profit to take a more active role in pet care in the community. The Thompson Humane Society is trying to bring locum vets to the community and also works with the Winnipeg Humane Society to host about four spay/neuter clinics a year.
Regehr says there's more than enough demand to have a full-time veterinarian up there. But it's a huge burden for a single vet to take on, especially because there's a lot of emergency and after-hours care.
It's a problem seen across remote parts of Canada, she said. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of incentives in these more remote communities where the burden is a lot heavier because veterinarians are trying to provide the best service they can with minimal resources, Regehr said.
Sawh says they're trying to incentivize getting a vet to choose Thompson as their home. The Humane Society purchased a building a couple of years ago and is putting in basic equipment to help recruit a vet for Thompson.
He's hoping having the equipment and building — the Animal Health and Wellness Centre — available will make it more appealing for a vet to set up a shop in northern Manitoba.
"We will provide a fairly low barrier accessibility by providing that infrastructure. So anyone who wants to set up a veterinary service in Thompson will, it'll be just a little bit easier for them to do that," Sawh said.
"Right now, having the big question mark of having ... vet care is really putting pressure on us."