PET FOOD BANK OUR WAY TO HELP FAMILIES
OUR MISSION IS TO PREVENT THE ABANDONMENT OF ANIMALS
The following is the story of why and how we became a pet food bank. We are the first charity group on Vancouver Island whose mandate is to prevent the abandonment of animals by helping out their families with food.
Why are we different to other animal groups and care so much about helping families? The answer is, the founder of the society has been a selfless animal lover her whole life.
Margarita has been an animal protector since a very young age, but her mother did not appreciate all the animals she was bringing home. Every time Margarita brought an abandoned pet home the mother made it dissapear. The pain of losing an animal in distress was so intense that at the age of sixteen Margarita forever left the house with her German Sheperd. Until the day her aunt and uncle brought both of them to their new artistic-home.
In 1997, when Margarita and her children moved to our island she noticed the immense quantity of youth living on the streets with dogs and cats. This sad scenerio reminded her of her young years. At that moment she promised herself that in a few years, once they would be settled, her family would try to help. In the meantime, the family fostered and rescued as many animals as they could. Margarita started writing letters to the newspapers and asking other animal rescue groups for help. Her children, Kai and Daniel, were the ones helping to take the animals to the veterinary, giving bath to the dogs and bringing comfort and support to the disabled pet owners.
In 2011, Kai, moved to Victoria and like her mother, the need of helping animals and their owners was stronger than the need to simply enjoy her youth. Before going to work, or during lunch break Kai carried a heavy bag filled with dog food to distribute. She called her mission the Boneless Project and invited her friend and roomate Diana to join her.
In 2012, Kai offered to bring the Boneless Project to Our Place Society, in Pandora Street, a building where the most vulnerable citizens in our society can have a free meal and shelter. At first, the project was not known, but with time and a lot of work from Kai, Diana and their friends the project started blooming.
Margarita with her son and with their new society's board members continued delivering food door to door in Sooke.
From 2013 to 2017, we officially began three new pet food banks in: Beecher Bay First Nation Reserve, Victoria Cool Aid's Rock Bay Landing Emergency Shelter and Salvation Army's Stan Haggen Center for Families.
We have been also co-operating with the band since 2011 to reduce feline overpopulation. We rescued, healed and adopted out seventy feral cats from Beecher Bay.
We began a new program to help the poor dogs who are tied up to chains on First Nations lands.
