At any given time local pets are having offspring. Most of these are unwanted litters for a pet owner. Each year the Swift Current SPCA handles over 350 adoptions or return missing pets. The SPCA shelter is a no kill shelter so with every rescued animal they have to find an adoptive family. The SPCA also has a Spayed or Neutering program so that rescued animals cannot add to the unwanted pet population.

With this plus operational expenses, the SPCA has an annual budget of $300,000. This is offset somewhat by the City of Swift Current as they are hired to run the Dog Pound Program. The money received from this covers the cost of holding loose animals but there is nothing extra for operational expenses. There is no funding from the province or federal governments so the SPCA is totally reliant on donations from the public to cover the operational budget. Each year heating, power, water and program cost all see annual increases.

To offset these increases, at this time of year, the SPCA has an annual appeal to the community. The program for 2017 is $17 for 17. Teresa Cole, Development officer for the Swift Current SPCA describes one of the increases. "One area we have been seeing cost increases in is certainly in the area of health care of our animals," she said. "We do ensure that all the pets we adopt out are spayed or neutered. Pet overpopulation is a big concern for us because we don't want to see any more homeless pets out there than necessary." Cole added, " We do ensure that all pets that are adopted out of the SPCA have been spayed or neutered before they are adopted or as part of the adoption contract they come back to us to have that surgery."

Anyone interested in answering the appeal in person can do so by stopping in at the SPCA Book Store at 37,1st Ave. NE. They can accept cash or cheque donations, or individuals can go online to spcaswiftcurrent.com click on the Donations Link and follow the process. Credit cards and Visa debit transactions are accepted by online payment.

The 2017 appeal of $17 for 17 is $12,000.