During last night's council meeting on April 4th, Rescued Paws at Alpine Foundation made a plea to the council, seeking to lease a building. 

Their objective is to sustain their mission of providing refuge to stray, lost, or surrendered dogs within the area.

Rescued Paws at Alpine Foundation is a non-profit organization that operates on a family-oriented and volunteer basis, serving Wheatland County.

"Our biggest challenge is that we do not have a permanent building to operate out of daily. Right now, we have had to halt all intakes for any local dogs or strays that are in Strathmore because we were so overwhelmed over the last year and a half with over 200 dogs that we rehomed just last year," explained Kyla Janes, owner of Alpine View Pet Spa.

Janes emphasized the pressing need for a permanent facility, as their current setup on personal property incurred significant expenses—nearly $200,000 in boarding fees alone. She also noted that many dogs were surrendered due to the housing crisis and neglect in spaying/neutering.

"Also, a lot of the dogs were owner surrenders due to the housing crisis and then also just due to people not spaying and neutering their animals and then having a lot of them abandoned."

Janes stressed the volunteer-driven nature of their foundation and underscored the necessity of a physical space. They envision this space enabling them to conduct adoption events and engage more actively within the community. Additionally, having a centralized building would facilitate intake, care, and security measures for lost and stray animals.

"Our entire program itself is volunteer-based, so we don't need to hire a whole bunch of people to do that. We're already able to function on fairly low amounts of income, but one of the biggest things that would be very beneficial is having the building that would be in town."

Following the presentation, the council passed a motion directing the administration to explore the feasibility of forming a partnership with Rescued Paws at Alpine Foundation.

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