Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society is a 5-star rated, financially transparent charity. It has a strong results reporting grade and its overhead spending is within Ci’s reasonable range. The charity has $2.8m in reserve funds, which can cover just under 11 months of annual program costs.

Founded in 2006 and based in Calgary, Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS) cares for homeless animals throughout the province. AARCS provides temporary, emergency, and quarantine shelter for animals in need. These animals might be abandoned, injured, living in dangerous conditions or handed over by their families who can no longer take care of them. Its Rescue & Transport team travelled 105,000km in F2022 to rescue animals. The charity has two locations: Safe Haven (Calgary) and North Haven (Edmonton). The Safe Haven shelter includes an in-house veterinary hospital with two surgical suites, a dental suite, a full-body X-ray machine, a laboratory, and a pharmacy. No adoptable animals are kept at this location. North Haven operates as a shelter and includes an adoption centre. In F2022, the charity reports helping over 5,000 animals.

AARCS does not disclose how much it spends on each of its programs.

In F2022, AARCS’s shelters took in 1,455 dogs, 2,812 cats, and 147 critters. It transferred 45 dogs, 15 cats and 10 critters to other shelters to accommodate capacity needs. ARRCS also reports that 69 dogs, 92 cats and three critters died or were humanely euthanized. The charity highlights that it does not euthanize animals for space or time in care. These numbers represent all deaths in care, including euthanasia performed to end suffering, animals deceased on arrival and stillborn animals.

The shelter’s hospital performed 2,451 spays and neuters, 371 dental surgeries and 500 other surgeries in F2022. The clinic also administered 13,303 vaccines and 14,337 wellness exams. The charity’s Trap-Neuter-Return program neutered 347 cats in F2022. AARCS works with the University of Calgary to provide students with hands-on animal care experience. In addition, it held two ultrasound lab sessions in collaboration with Heska Canada, a veterinary technology company. Both sessions had 20 participants. In F2022, AARCS hosted its first post-covid canine blood draw, in which 11 dogs donated blood. This allowed the charity to identify some dogs with negative blood type, making them universal blood donors. The charity explains that this is valuable information for future adopters because this means their pets can help other dogs. AARCS hopes to host one blood drive every year from now on.

In F2022, the charity introduced a couple of new programs. Having noticed an increase in families surrendering pets to the shelter because they can no longer care for them, the charity established the Compassionate Care Pilot Project. This project provides support such as medical care, supplies and behavioural assistance in hopes that families will be able to keep their pets. In F2022, it helped 50 pets. In addition, AARCS introduced the Pet Food Bank program in Edmonton. It reports assisting over 800 households and over 1,000 pets.

In F2022, the charity hosted seven community events and two AARCS signature events. These include outreach and educational events with students in Alberta.