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WHS Education Corner: Go Behind the Scenes with a Shelter Tour

By: Richard Milbourne, Assistant Manager, Education

It is one thing hearing about the work that is done at a non-profit organization, it’s another thing seeing it in first hand. The Winnipeg Humane Society Tours & Field Trips give schools and community groups the opportunity to tour the facility with an educational guide. This gives them the opportunity to hear stories about the animals, find out what happens to our animals from when they enter our care until they leave with their forever families, and a chance to ask questions to fully understand everything that goes on behind the scenes here at the WHS.

In addition to showing our guests around the shelter, the tours provide the opportunity to develop empathy for our animals. As humans, we naturally care about things that we understand and things that we can relate to. Being able to interact with the animals, to be able to see how loving and trusting the animals can be, really strikes a cord and begins to develop a life long love of animals! For those who are nervous or scared of dogs, it gives us an opportunity to discuss and explain dog behaviour and to give everyone a positive, supervised interaction with a dog. *

Our tours last for approximately one hour. We give a short introduction discussing the Winnipeg Humane Society, what our staff and volunteers do and what guests may see during the tour. The animal viewing and interactions vary depending on the animals we have in the shelter on the day of the tour. We typically visit our Cat Condos, Dog Pods, and Critter Corner to educate our groups on the building, our capacity, the work that is done behind the scenes, and then animals we have up for adoption.

The Education Department loves giving tours as every single one is different. We always get questions we’ve never had before and groups that react differently to different animals. But what becomes a common theme, is the groups leaving with a smile on their faces having had a fun and educational experience.

If you are interested in booking a tour of our facility, email [email protected] or call 204-982-2046 for more information.

*We do our best to provide dog interactions, however, we can only use dogs that have been cleared by our behavior team. We cannot guarantee that there will be a suitable dog for every tour group.