Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta / Facebook

By Emily Keller

bandaged paws

Grande Prairie RCMP members fostering animals for Bandaged Paws during pandemic

May 8, 2020 | 1:16 PM

Members of the Grande Prairie RCMP are fostering animals for Bandaged Paws during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Natasha Arsenault, Executive Director of Bandaged Paws, says Constable Patrick McPhee with the Grande Prairie RCMP has been fostering with them for a while.

“Constable McPhee, when the pandemic hit, he got some of his coworkers to sign up and foster, so right now, we have eight RCMP members and their families that are fostering for us, so it’s been a really great help to have trusted fosters to jump right in to our foster program when we’ve needed a lot of help over the last few months.”

Constable McPhee says that RCMP members have been helping out in other ways too.

“I had kind of an overwhelming response from a lot of the members in the Grande Prairie detachment saying, ‘I can’t necessarily foster an animal, but do they need food? Do they need this? What do they need?'”

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He adds that over his years of fostering, he has had one ‘foster fail’, which means he adopted the animal he was fostering.

“In my time at Bandaged Paws, I can tell you that close to a dozen of my partners have had foster fails, or adopted dogs that I’ve fostered, so, it’s pretty cool to see our guys turning to local rescue agencies and supporting the Grande Prairie community by adopting these dogs. It’s super cool.”

Arsenault says that they have had a number of families foster for them over the years, and that the added help was welcomed due to the current circumstances. She says that many animals have found homes through their foster program.