Salish Paws is a registered charity whose primary objective is to save the lives of reactive dogs who have been neglected or abused; whilst implementing programs within our communities for First Nations youth and incarcerated individuals to learn to train our rescues so they can be effectively rehomed or placed into foster homes without concern. Furthermore, Salish PAWS operates a pet food bank to provide food to pet owners who are in financial crisis. It is our mandate to ensure no dog goes without a home or food.

Our current project, Steqó:ya Lá:lem's Oasis Kennel, is located on 5 acres in the heart of East Sooke on Vancouver Island. The building will house 8–10 reactive rescue dogs that are not ready to be rehomed or placed in foster care due to behavioural challenges. This will also be our central location where we will run our programs for First Nations youth to learn to train our rescues and receive certificates as dog trainers; which they can then use to start their own business or attain a position with another company. The building will be two stories high and contain a large storage unit for our food bank, as well as a boarding facility for our program participants.

Our facility also includes a full-scale food garden, bee hives and livestock — our goal with this is to allow participants to also learn how to be self-sustaining as many of our people once were.

Programs such as these have demonstrated significantly positive results in development for at-risk youth, veterans suffering with PTSD and individuals who are incarcerated in our prisons.

Our goal is to work with our local school districts to include our program in their volunteer credits — allowing students to participate and receive credits toward high school graduation.

The Oasis Kennel is our pilot project. After we have successfully demonstrated the benefits to our communities, we will take this same project and offer to build it on local reserves around Southern Vancouver Island. We would build the kennel and aid in its operation.

For this portion of the project, we have Red Seal tradespeople who have offered to volunteer their time and would work one on one with local youth. This would allow the youth to have a chance to try out a trade of their choice and receive credited hours toward an ITA apprenticeship program — if they chose to move forward with that trade in the future.

We know this is a massive endeavor. With that being said- between the influx of dogs being surrendered, since the pandemic restrictions were lifted, and the innate need for community and connection; we believe this pilot project will bring about unreasonably positive changes for everyone involved. We are grateful for the time you took to read about our cause. 

Please consider donating and help us start to really change some lives.