Animal rescue group to offer veterinary services on James Bay Coast

Paws of the North Rescue is a charity that helps isolated communities in northern Ontario by offering veterinarian services to families with pets.

This month, a crew will fly to Attawapiskat and Fort Albany where there are few to no vet services available.

Officials with Paws of the North Rescue said it wasn't able to visit during the COVID-19 pandemic and now the communities are dealing with an increased population of dogs and cats.

Officials said there are health and safety issues as a result.

"They are free to do what they like up there and it is a beautiful thing to be able to witness them being naturally dogs,” said Holly Marko, founder of Paws of the North Rescue.

“But at the same time they now deal with issues because of the lack of veterinarian care or even rescues like ourselves being able to go up there and provide these clinics to get the population down."

A team of about eight will be going to the James Bay Coastal communities. It will be in Attawapiskat from Jan. 19- 22 and in Fort Albany from Jan. 22-25.

"Two veterinarians, some veterinarian technicians and some veterinarian assistants along with community volunteers (will be) helping us," said Marko.

Marko added that Ontario is experiencing a dog problem in general with pandemic pups being surrendered to shelters.

She said "it's getting scary out there for rescues and shelters" in terms of them being able to handle the number of dogs and cats needing help.