ROCKY VIEW COUNTY— The Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary is fundraising to house 10 new canine residents which were rescued in October 2020.
The From Alone to Home: Wolfdog Rescue Campaign is looking to raise enough funds to help cover the costs of three new enclosures at the sanctuary.
Thirteen total dogs were rescued in October, ten of which are wolfdogs. The other three are sled dogs and have been housed at a separate dog shelter.
Jessica Hynes, fundraising and event manager with the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary, said the wolfdogs are settling in nicely at their new home.
“They’re really settling into their new spaces. They have this beautiful home, so they’re really starting to calm down and their personalities are starting to shine through,” Hynes said. “Some of them are definitely pretty cautious and pretty shy, but we’re just working on them with lots of patience to build their confidence and show them that us humans are not that scary.”
The campaign itself is trying to raise $160,000, to cover the initial rescue costs to get the animals to Yamnuska and the initial veterinary costs.
“The enclosures are a big expense. The enclosures here cost up to $50,000, and we have to build three of those to provide our pack members the space they really deserve," Hynes said.
The enclosures are typically about two acres, which gives the animals plenty of space to express their natural tendencies, explore and hide from the public if they are feeling shy or uncomfortable.
The enclosures are much more than just a fenced off area, Hynes said. The construction includes eight-foot-high fences, two feet of overhang and electric sections to prevent climbing, double-gated entrances and dig guards.
“They require quite a different specialized space in order to keep them safe and contained,” Hynes said.
Each enclosure usually holds two or three animals, depending on their disposition toward each other. Three of the animals that came to the Sanctuary during the rescue are siblings, and those three have been kept together in one space.
The Sakura’s Hope Foundation has offered to match all donations up to $50,000, meaning if the Sanctuary can pay for the construction of the first two, the Foundation will pay for the third.
The Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary is the only rescue of its kind in Canada, she said, and the work they do is critical in protecting the wellbeing of the animals and educating the public.
“We are a very specialized animal rescue in that we give a second chance to displaced wolfdogs. Wolfdogs are very unique in that they have both wolf and dog content in them, so they don’t really belong in either world entirely,” Hynes said.
She explained the wolfdogs did not get the “education” wolves typically get when growing up in the wild and would be unable to survive those conditions.
Likewise, the wolfdogs have special needs that are very hard to accommodate in a domestic setting.
The result is the animals are displaced over and over again, never finding a forever home— Often they end up being euthanized.
“We are just trying to give those animals that would otherwise be in that stream a third option where they can live out their lives in a space that they always should have had from the beginning,” Hynes said.
If you would like to get involved with the From Alone to Home Campaign, visit yamnuskawolfdogsanctuary.com and click the donate button on the homepage.
