Kailee Tones, Toronto.
Bianca Del Bois is the founder and executive director of Urban Tails Animal Rescue in Toronto, Ontario. Del Bois and her rescue team work together to not only rescue animals but to educate and set up spay and neuter clinics to tackle overpopulation.
“We work with our partner rescues abroad and here domestically in Canada and do spay, neuter clinics for population control.” Del Bois said. “And to kind of try to get to the root of the problem.”
The root of the problem being, people not spaying and neutering their animals to have a controlled population in shelters and rescues.
Setting up clinics to spay and neuter as many animals as possible is Del Bois’ solution to break the rapid reproduction of cats and dogs. Del Bois says it is important to educate pet owners and rescuers on the care of animals, and the simple solution to have less animals in shelters and on the streets.
“It’s easy to get a dog online. But you know, it’s the care that comes after.” Del Bois said. “The education pieces that come with that, that I think is lacking generally.”
As much as there is an overpopulation issue in Canada, it is minimal in comparison to where they rescue abroad. The streets are constantly populated with street animals, which are often malnourished, sick, or injured.
Urban Tails doesn’t only rescue Canadian animals, they take their mission international. Their rescue partners include operations in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Istanbul. They even rescue from the South Korean dog meat markets.
Approximately thirty million dogs are killed and eaten across Asia per year. In South Korea there are over a thousand dog meat markets. Urban Tails may not be able to save them all, but the ones they do save get a second chance at life.
In 2018, Canadian shelters took in around 81 000 cats, and 30 000 dogs. Meanwhile the World Health Organization states that there are more than two-hundred million stray dogs worldwide yearly. Making the need for not only local rescue, but international rescue more urgent.
“We see an increase of these issues and other areas that we help, particularly abusive situations, an increased population of street animals, and then also just the lack of awareness in certain 
areas.” Del Bois said. “So, when we do go over, and we rescue, we also do a lot of outreach and education and clinics in those areas to try to help out the communities that were that were taking dogs from.”
Del Bois said that taking street dogs from rescues abroad give them a better chance to be adopted and find a forever home in Canada.
She said that the best thing about her job is matching animals with families that are willing and deserving. She said that her job is very rewarding, just seeing that they are able to save animals and have them end up in a loving home.
But, it’s not a walk in the park. The rescue has to front a ton of medical bills to nurse the animals back to health before adoption. Urban Tails is a registered Canadian charity, but they have yet to receive government funding. Right now, the rescue is entirely funded by public donations.
“Hopefully this year we’ll be receiving, government funding, which would be ideal so that we can help more.”
As depicted in Urban Tails’ social media accounts, they often save animals that are seen as helpless. Animals that otherwise probably wouldn’t have had a chance. Del Bois sees hope in every animal she rescues, but unfortunately, she can’t rescue them all.
“I think that rescuing is highly important. There’s millions and millions of dogs and cats that need rescuing and only so many that we can take. So, the more people that can kind of fill their lives with rescue animals, the better.”
Be the first to comment