Courtesy: CHAT Newsroom

By Angela Kazmierczak

Medicine Hat’s APARC loses half of bottle donations due to theft

Apr 24, 2023 | 5:53 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Last week Medicine Hat’s Alberta Pound and Rescue Centre (APARC) held a bottle drive to support their rescue and impound animals.

The amount of donations had tripled at this year’s drive too – but that wasn’t until APARC made a sad discovery.

APARC’s drive began on Friday, April 21st and was going to extend over the weekend until Sunday, April 23rd. But then staff and volunteers noticed that their truck, parked in front of the store, was broken into.

The break in happened sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Around 10 to 20 bags of bottles were missing.

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Steven Wolf, General Manager of APARC, says the theft has impacted the organization’s morale.

“Animal care is our top priority, and the city of Medicine Hat has always been very kind and very generous to us when we needed it. Everybody has always stepped up. But it seems a shame that somebody felt they needed more than our animals,” said Wolf.

The bottle drive was meant to help with emergency eye surgeries for two cats, the spay and neutering of their animals, and with the carry over of pets from December.

The rescue centre appreciates any cat food, etransfer, cash and blanket donations. APARC plans to hold another bottle drive later this year.