Iqaluit’s Humane Society eyes sea cans for new animal shelter

Iqaluit Humane Society coordinator Janine Budgell, left, and volunteers used a booth at the community’s Christmas fair to encourage people to vote for the organization in the Aviva Insurance Community Fund. The organization stands to win $150,000 if successful – money that would go to pay for its new shelter. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Since the Iqaluit Humane Society’s shelter officially closed last August, its volunteers have continued to take in more than 70 unwanted pets. The group hopes to re-launch its shelter 2012. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Iqaluit’s Humane Society, which has plans to build a new shelter for abandoned and unwanted pets in the city, is thinking not outside, but inside the box when it comes to design ideas.

The non-profit group plans to build a new addition on to its current shelter with three donated sea cans.

One 20-foot and two 40-foot sea cans would form the frame of the new shelter addition, set to be installed behind the current shelter on Ulu Lane, off Federal Road.

“It’s new, it’s interesting and something that we can do,” said the group’s founder and coordinator, Janine Budgell.

Sea cans already serve as storage sheds and temporary housing on work sites in Nunavut.

So far, the Humane Society has received two donated sea cans – it is still looking for a third, while an architect as well as local construction companies have already promised their expertise to transform the sea cans into a warm and workable shelter.

The plan would see the exterior of the sea can structure insulated with spray foam. Then, its interior would be fitted with wood strapping, wiring, drywall and plaster.

The new space would give the shelter a quarantine facility and assessment rooms, Budgell said.

But that new addition hinges on support from both the city and the group’s other fundraising efforts.

Nunavut’s only animal shelter, which formed in 2007, closed its doors last August, saying it lacked the money and manpower to continue to take in the city’s unwanted pets.

Since then, the organization has taken time to regroup and plan how to rebuild with a limited resources, gathered mostly though local fundraising and donations.

Society members plan to approach city council next week for permission to use the marshy land behind the building.

The city previously decided the piece of land couldn’t be developed because it is unstable, although Humane Society members hope the city will agree to its plan to fill in and build up the land around the marshy area.

Meanwhile, to raise money for the project, the Humane Society is rounding up votes in the hope that it will win a contest, the Aviva Insurance Community Fund, that would award the organization $150,000 if it receives the highest number of voters.

The contest’s next round of voting began Dec. 5.

In addition to fundraising and working on its plans for a new shelter, the society has restructured and launched eight committees to support its mandate and board of directors.

The organization’s outreach and education committee has also been working with the territory’s correctional services to develop a program that would train local inmates to work with animals and do behaviour training.

And the group began school visits as part of its “No Bite” program which encourages safe interactions between people and dogs.

Since the shelter officially closed last August, its volunteers have continued to take in more than 70 unwanted pets, many of whom have been shipped to southern shelters.

But with the launch of Iqaluit’s new vet service, NunaVet, Budgell also hopes the Humane Society can also focus on a more intensive spay and neuter program which won’t require animals to be shipped south for surgery.