Volunteers venture into evacuation zones to rescue pets, reunite them with owners

Adrienne McBride was watching the McDougall Creek wildfire Thursday night from her bedroom window in the North Clifton area of Kelowna, B.C. 

Later that night, fires ignited on her side of Okanagan Lake and forced even more people from their homes — and then, McBride got very busy. 

In the past few days, McBride, who oversees all of the B.C. SPCA's animal centres across the province, has been helping volunteers venture into areas under evacuation order to rescue all manner of pets and help reunite them with their owners. 

"That's an incredible gift that we can give to pet owners," McBride said. "I'm grateful we have the opportunity to serve our community in that way."

It's not just people who have been affected by the fires raging across B.C.'s southern Interior. It's also their cats, dogs, chickens and chinchillas.

McBride says in many cases pets were separated from their families when evacuation orders were issued while their owners were at work or out shopping for groceries, unable to return home. 

"Cats and dogs and chickens and animals … they're grateful to be rescued. This is a scary situation for them," she said.

Volunteers allowed into evacuated areas

The B.C. SPCA and other animal rescue organizations have not only rescued those pets, they have also provided free pet boarding for people who have found temporary homes but aren't able to bring Fido or Fluffy along. 

In other cases, volunteers hand out supplies to pet owners who rushed to escape encroaching wildfires and couldn't grab food or a leash. 

The volunteers are allowed into areas under evacuation order.

Daryl Meyers, information officer for the Animal Lifeline Emergency Response Team (ALERT), says it provides a crucial service. 

"A lot of times it's really hard to get people to evacuate if they can't take their pets with them," Meyers said over the phone while driving home to Penticton, B.C.

"The other thing too is that when there isn't a service like ours, people have the tendency to want to sneak back into their property to try to get their pet."

On Sunday night, Meyers drove 17 chickens from Kelowna to Osoyoos, almost 100 kilometres to the south, where the organization keeps livestock.

She estimates ALERT has about 400 animals in its care — cats and dogs as well as horses and goats.

'A lot of heartache out there'

ALERT volunteers also do wellness checks on animals that aren't able to leave their homes, like fish in giant tanks or cats that are too difficult to capture, or are simply better off at home.

Meyers says sometimes it's eerie going into areas that have been evacuated, some with no power running and the smell of ash in the air. 

"There will be a lot of heartache out there when people are allowed to go home to their places," she said.

For McBride, the toll of simultaneously seeing so much heartache while herself living under an evacuation alert has taken its toll. 

"I'm so tired," she said. "But this is what we want to be doing, we want to be helping the community. And how lucky are we that we get that opportunity?"