Community Safety and Wellness Programs
Indigenous SPCA works with Indigenous Nations to strengthen community safety by addressing gaps in local animal management systems. This includes supporting community-led planning, improving access to veterinary care where it is structurally absent, and helping Nations develop approaches that reflect their own priorities, governance, and capacity.
Animal-related safety risks are public health issues. When animal management systems are missing or under-resourced, communities are forced into crisis responses. Indigenous SPCA exists to help shift those conditions toward prevention, consistency, and local control.
Indigenous SPCA is a project of Increased ACCESS.
While SPCA is commonly understood to mean “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,” Indigenous SPCA uses the term to emphasize safety for people, communities, and animals. This reflects a shift away from charity-based animal welfare models toward public health, governance, and infrastructure solutions.
Support community-led solutions to animal-related safety and health risks. Your contribution helps Indigenous Nations develop durable systems, not one-time interventions.
Support this work through advocacy, partnership, learning, or financial contribution. Indigenous SPCA prioritizes approaches that strengthen local capacity and reduce reliance on short-term, volunteer-driven responses.
Our mission is to work alongside Indigenous Nations to improve community safety and health by strengthening local animal management systems. This includes supporting planning and governance, improving access to veterinary services where they are structurally absent, and centering community-defined priorities.
Indigenous SPCA is not a traditional animal welfare charity, a rescue organization, or a rebranded version of a provincial SPCA model. It does not assume that volunteerism, donations, or short-term services can substitute for public infrastructure, local authority, or sustained capacity. Indigenous SPCA does not prescribe one model for all communities, nor does it seek to “Indigenize” existing animal welfare systems. Instead, it supports Indigenous Nations in defining and building animal management approaches that align with their own governance, priorities, and realities.