Increased Access

12/03/2025

Check this out, Healthy Debate has published this important article about community animal management in Canada. Trust me, it's more interesting than it sounds, haha. Please share it widely to help get some new conversations started, and actions!

Unequal access to pet care in rural and Indigenous communities has led to dogs being shot when they pose a risk to the public.

11/04/2025

Need access to affordable spay and neuter services? Can you get your dog/cat to Chilliwack, BC? Our friends at Mission Pawsible are booking appointments at non-profit rates. Please share widely.

Affordable spay & neuter appointments now open! Mission Pawsible — a non-profit veterinary clinic currently in Chilliwack, BC — is offering safe, high-quality surgeries for dogs and cats at community-friendly prices.

✨ Every spay or neuter helps prevent unwanted litters and saves lives — right here in our community.

📲 Register today and we'll suggest some appointment dates:
👉 https://vet.digitail.io/clinics/mission-pawsible-clinic-for-animals

💚 Because every “fix” makes a difference.

🐶🐱 Please share to help more pets get the care they deserve!

11/01/2025

Send us your Red Collar Day photos - maybe with your dog or cat friend wearing a red collar?

Increased ACCESS, an Indigenous-led nonprofit that helps with animal management solutions, has created a new day to raise awareness about public health and safety inequities in Indigenous communities across Canada. Nov. 1, 2025, marks the first Red Collar Day, a national day for truth, healing and s...

10/30/2025

Red Collar Day (November 1st) — Remembering, Not Blaming

Equal Care. Every Community.

Often in the fall, in some Indigenous communities, families still face an impossible choice: to keep children safe, dogs are sometimes shot.

These tragedies aren’t acts of cruelty — they are the result of 150 years of unequal access to the animal-care systems that keep both people and animals safe in other parts of the country.

The red collar began as a plea: mark the owned dogs so they won’t be shot. Today, it’s a symbol of remembrance, solidarity, and change — a reminder that every community deserves the same access to veterinary care, infrastructure, and humane services that protect public health and safety. These are essential services.

This Red Collar Day (Nov 1), we’re remembering the lives lost and calling for policies that make care—not culls—the national standard.

How to take part:

❤️ Wear red or add a red collar to your animal companion if they are up for it

📸 Share a photo with

📢 Tell your MLA or MP: every community deserves access to animal care and safety

Let’s make sure that no child — and no dog — is ever left unprotected again.

👉 Learn more: www.increasedaccess.org/redcollarday

09/18/2025

“Access to veterinary care shouldn’t depend on your postal code, your income, or your identity.”

Diogi had never been to a veterinary clinic before. His family drove hours from their community to get him help. But the price tag was overwhelming — and surrendering him was the only option offered.

Moments like this are heartbreaking. And they happen more often than people think. For many Indigenous and remote communities, veterinary care is simply out of reach — financially and geographically.

In this new article, “James Herriot is Dead” we explore:

- Why the animal welfare sector needs to be decolonized
- How non-profit mobile vet clinics can fill urgent gaps
- Why veterinarians and RVTs should be added to BC’s loan forgiveness program

These are solutions that can keep families together, reduce suffering, and bring fairness to animal welfare.

👉 Please take a moment to read and share the article.
👉 And if you can, support our work at Increased Access / Indigenous SPCA so we can bring these solutions to life. Every bit of support matters.

Read the article: https://www.increasedaccess.org/post/james-harriot-is-dead

Donate: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/increased-access/

07/31/2025

Good News: PetSmart Charities has provided Increased ACCESS with a grant to work with Wuikinuxv Nation on their community animal management plan. We will soon be sharing the details of how PSC's support is going to help keep dogs, cats, and their families healthy and safe. Stay tuned...

05/18/2025

Our www.IndigenousSPCA.com project officially launched, as the presenting sponsor, at the yesterday in Winnipeg!

Our giant, 149-year-past-due, $149,000,000 invoice to the federal government was a hit!

Also popular: all the childrens books sent from our friends at www.lakesanimalfriendship.ca/resources/ to share with folks.

While sharing the main stage with some wonderful folks, we had the opportunity to share what services Indigenous SPCA can provide to help improve safety for people, communities and animals including:

- Animal management planning supports for communities
- Exploring how to increase the access that rural and remote communities have to essential services like vet care and bylaw enforcement
- Networking nations with other nations to share relevant successes, etc.
- Supporting the development of positive relationships between Indigenous communities and out-of-community service providers like animal ‘rescue’ teams

We also touched on some of our goals to decolonize ‘animal welfare’ work in Canada.

Many folks were keen to hear about the affordable vetmobiles and multi-purpose prefab buildings (designed to be used in rural and remote communities to temporarily kennel dogs (especially dogs in heat), safely preform spay and neuter surgeries in, and store equipment) being made by our friends at www.carenetwork.ca/victoryvetmobiles

A big thank you to Save A Dog Network Canada making this much needed conference happen!

04/29/2025

Join us in Winnipeg in a few weeks for this unique, solutions-based conference hosted by Save A Dog Network Canada and presented by our www.indigenousSPCA.com project!

01/21/2025

Please share this podcast widely! It details some of Increased ACCESS's member-directed plans and ideas such as getting beyond depending on volunteerism and philanthropy to deliver essential community safety services, like veterinary care, to rural and remote Indigenous communities.

In this episode of Critters and Cultures, Dr. Azalia Boyd engages with Dr. Emma Jackson and James Rogers to explore the intersection of animal welfare and cu...

12/18/2024

Who is the most likely person across Canada to be bitten by a dog?

Help End Community Safety Inequality

12/12/2024

Some rural and remote communities still don’t have access to essential community safety services like veterinary care and animal control enforcement. Others have only limited access to these types of safety services when volunteer teams funded by philanthropy are able to help out.

Out of desperation, some communities end up taking drastic measures, with resources they do have access to, like guns, to keep their citizens safe when dog populations get out of control.

This community safety inequality has to end so all residents can be safe, whether they have two legs or four.

While the Increased ACCESS team works on these issues via their policy advocacy work, the team are also providing direct services to these underserved communities including this fun program for children and youth:

"I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the looks on the high schoolers' faces when I started showing them how to use a disposable camera."Increased ACCESS is partnering with remote Indigenous communities and their education departments to pilot a fun, new photography project designed to develop empath...

12/12/2024

Hint: it’s not Halloween…

Is Halloween the scariest day for dogs & cats?