The Society for Animals in Distress is a no kill animal shelter which has saved thousands of unwanted animals from certain death over our 30+ year existence.

In late September staff noticed cracks forming in the walls of the feline section and brought it to the attention of the Board. A contractor was immediately secured and his opinion was the building is unsafe. The City of Elliot Lake was advised and a no entry order was posted, meanwhile all animals in our care had been proactively relocated to foster homes.

Our insurer had a forensic inspector attend on Oct 28 and the initial news is not good. We are still awaiting the report with final analysis from the insurance and remain unsure of the future of our building. In the meantime we have been granted temporary use of the very small city pound to have some surrenders there on an interim basis. However, this results in our income being dramatically reduced with the loss of our daycare, boarding, surrender and rehoming services.

The organization does not receive government funding - we have been self sufficient from the start. But we now find ourselves in dire straits and must ask for help. We do not know at this time if our insurance will offer any assistance with the rehabilitation of our building or if that is even a possibility. Secondly, we are not assured we will receive loss of business support from our insurer. As the only shelter/rescue in the North Shore area our closure has impacted the community as most rescue facilities in the province and country are already at their limits and unable to take in more animals.

We still receive calls daily from people wanting to surrender their pets to us for rehoming.