AARCS closing in Edmonton to focus on Calgary location

The Edmonton Animal Rescue Crew Society is closing its Edmonton shelter location. Amanda Anderson explains why.

The Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS) will close its North Haven facility in Edmonton in the coming months to expand its main location in Calgary.

It’s a move that AARCS believes will benefit more animals in the long term.

Thousands of animals have gotten a second chance at a good life since the location in north Edmonton opened five years ago.

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“I think we’re around 600 adoptions every single year, but we also have animals that have come through this facility and stayed overnight and gone into our Calgary facility for adoption. So thousands of animals have been through this building,” executive director Deanna Thompson said.

“By centralizing and ensuring that we are using every donor dollar to be able to help as many animals as possible, and right now, this was the best way we felt we could do that.”

The closure doesn’t mean animals in Edmonton and northern Alberta will be abandoned.

“We were in Edmonton prior to opening North Haven. We had foster homes here and volunteers, the way a smaller rescue would operate. So we hope to continue to do that.”

But without the shelter space through AARCS in Edmonton, capacity could become an issue for other local rescues -- already full.

“Reduction in capacity in the region, it really does drive home the need for anybody that’s ever been interested in fostering or volunteering, please do reach out, whether it’s to SCARS or a different organization. There’s lots of opportunity to go around, especially for fostering,” Pat Annetts of Second Chance Animal Rescue Society (SCARS) said.

While Annetts is sad to see AARCS close here he believes their plan will actually help the rescue community.

“If they’re able to improve their veterinary resources within their organization and take some of the pressure off of other local publicly available resources and we can leverage that gap, that will help us indirectly tremendously.”

Six staff and hundreds of volunteers are impacted by the closure.

“There’s lots of wonderful organizations here in Edmonton, both the humane society as well as other rescue groups, so we’ll put some resources together for them that they can look to volunteer in other ways,” Thompson said.

“They’re also welcome to stay on as our volunteers. We’re a provincial organization, and it would just be in a different capacity.”

AARCS has about 50 cats in Edmonton it hopes to find homes for before it closes at the end of March.