About Us
Safe Paws Animal Rescue of Ontario is a registered non-profit animal rescue organization based in Ontario, Canada that is dedicated to helping the stray, homeless and abandoned animals. With our close relationships with our veterinarians, trainers, and rescue partners we are able to give great care, love and devotion to our animals. We then carefully select perfect homes for our animals when they are ready for adoption.
Established in 2022, we have helped over 250 animals find comfort and love residing in their new forever homes. From canines, felines and rabbits, we help wherever we can, whenever we can.
Success Stories
Hope
One morning while our founder was working her day job at a veterinary emergency clinic, the phone rang and what she was going to hear on the other side of that phone call would send shivers down her spine. A panicked and frantic property manager calling to get help for an abandoned dog trapped inside a tiny crate. The dog was a complete skeleton, covered head to toe in feces and was stained yellow and brown from her excrement. Bugs filled the room from the horrid smell and condition this dog had been left in.
Unfortunately the authorities were not able to help at that moment so we made the decision to have the property manager bring us the dog. We named her Hope.
Nervous and unsettled, our founder waited by the doors of the hospital for the dog to arrive. When Hope finally emerged from the vehicle, we couldn’t even believe that she was able to walk. She was a literal skeleton. There was nowhere safe to touch her without having your hand covered in feces. Her nails so badly overgrown her toes curled. She had infection all over her body and several sores, oozing. Photos of the area she was kept in are something of your nightmares. Layers and layers of caked on urine and feces, and empty bowls. No bedding. No open window for air. Just filth.
Hope was bathed immediately so that our doctor could actually do a proper physical exam and see what was going on. She had infected, oozing, pressure sores on several areas of her body.
Her ears were infected and she had parasites.
It took months to get Hope back to a healthy weight and looking her best. She had lacked training and socializing. She needed a lot of work. Thanks to her amazing foster mom, she was able to be a civilized member of society and ultimately found an amazing home where she will never live another day like she once did.
Scooby
One late night, our founder Amber received a message about 2 dogs in urgent need of help. They had been neglected, abandoned and left to die inside an apartment which was owned by a person known to abuse drugs and alcohol. The neighbors hadn’t seen him in a month. The carnage and wreckage of the apartment became so foul and the chaos of the dogs trying to escape eventually caught the attention of a neighbor. Thanks to her courageous act, she broke in and removed the emaciated and injured dogs. With the help of another animal rescue, we were able to intake the boy and they took the girl. We named them Scooby and Fiona.
Scooby came home with our founder that night. He was a huge mess. Scooby had over 50 cuts, bites and scratches all over his body from the 2 dogs fighting each other. He had a bad laceration to one of his toes and we weren’t sure it was going to heal due to the location. Amongst his injuries were also scars. Old scars that tell a story of a sad life this dog had lived. Scooby lacked manners and was in constant fear of abandonment. He would eat anything and everything in sight and had no sense of boundaries. Over the weeks, Amber worked on training and weight gain. Scooby had a laundry list of medications he was on to support his injuries and condition and it took a long time getting him to an adoptable state.
After a couple of months, Scooby was ready to begin finding a home. He was placed with an incredible dog mom with 3 dogs already. We knew this would be a great fit because Scooby didn’t like to be alone. He needed a full house to feel secure and safe. He had a lot of issues and made a lot of mistakes. For months we helped his new mom with Scooby so that he could be successful, even though he continued to make many mistakes. His new mom didn’t give up, even with all the stress he continued to cause. He was worth it, and she knew that.
Scooby is now living an amazing life. After 6 months in his adoptive home, and not seeing Amber in that time, we arranged for a meeting to see if he would recognize her. The reunion can be found on Scoob(Serj)’s instagram: the_spoiledpack . Heartwarming as can be, he remembered her as well as her dog Django. We love you Serj!!
Little Bear
Little Bear came to us as an owner surrender from one of Ontario’s northern indigenous communities which is a fly-in only part of Northern Ontario. Upon arrival, we were thrilled to see how wonderfully balanced and adaptable Little Bear was. She took to her foster family instantly and joined us for an event the following weekend. It wasn’t until things took a turn for the worst and Little Bear started to show signs of illness. Little Bear had tested positive for Parvovirus, a highly infectious and almost always fatal virus that attacks young and unvaccinated dogs. Little Bear fought for her life for 10 days in isolation receiving intense ICU care, blood transfusion, fecal transplant and every medication thought that would help her recover. Thankfully on day 10, she started to show improvement. She was drinking on her own and eating small amounts of food. At this point, we thought continuing her treatment in her foster home would help her feel more comfortable which in turn should help her heal quicker, which it did! About 2 weeks later, Little Bear started to feel very sick again. Our hearts sank as we rushed her in to confirm what we thought was going to be a uterus infection but in fact it was much worse.. Little Bear was 6 weeks pregnant and was self aborting her fetuses. This news was devastating but provided so many answers as to why Little Bear took as long as she did to recover from parvo. The medications used to treat parvo are absolutely not safe for fetuses nor pregnant dogs. The fact that she was able to survive the virus while pregnant was just another sign of how incredibly strong and special she really was.
Due to the fact that the puppies were exposed to so many harmful medications and how weak Little Bear still was, we made the decision to have Little Bear spayed immediately to abort the pregnancy. This was the best decision for Little Bear and the puppies.
Fast forward to today, Little Bear is fully healed and back to her normal self again! She has been adopted by her foster family and gets to spend the rest of her life with her favorite tiny human and devoted parents along with her BFF cat and dog siblings. Little bear is now a foster fur-sibling to many new fosters her family brings home and has taken on the role very well!
Ollie
Ollie was surrendered to our rescue, along with his sister Raven. He was born on a reservation in Northern Ontario where there is no access to attainable veterinary care, so puppies like Ollie are born every day. When Ollie first arrived, we noticed he was drinking a lot of water and thus peeing a lot. This was abnormal for a dog so after a trip to the vet, our sweet 3 month old Ollie bear was diagnosed with Renal Disease. At that point, he was already in stage 2. He was started on medicine and special food and was sent to a foster home who could take him on long term. At his 1 month recheck, he progressed to stage 3. His body was failing him. We made his time on earth count and with the help of his foster family, he was able to experience so many great things. We knew he wouldn’t be with us for very long but we were not prepared to lose Ollie just shy of his 6 month birthday. Ollie let us know that he could no longer go on and the next day, he was surrounded by those who loved him and with shattered hearts, we said our goodbyes and helped Ollie cross over the rainbow bridge.
