The BC Wildlife Park is moving forward with construction of a quarantine pen for large animals like bison, deer, or bighorn sheep that come to the park.

General Manager Glenn Grant says they recently got a $50,000 donation from the Weston Family Foundation towards the project – which will help complete construction – noting they still need to raise about $20,000 to plant trees and build some additional shelters within the enclosure.

“The fencing portion itself was $28,000. The building is closer to $45,000 to $50,000,” he told NL News. “We’re really confident. When it comes to animal welfare, its a little easier to raise funds when people and companies know that their donation is going to help wildlife.”

Back in Jan. 2020, the park applied for and got $15,000 from the Shuswap Community Foundation, and $1,500.00 from the BC Interior Community Foundation – with the money going towards the fencing that was needed.

“It was great to get the foundations and some larger corporate donors to kick things off and get big chunks going into projects, but a lot of those small $5, $10, $15 donations – they all go to animal welfare like this,” Grant said.

“It is because of the generosity of so many individuals and foundations that we are able to continue to care for British Columbia’s iconic wildlife and continue to improve our infrastructure.”

Construction on the quarantine pen was put on hold at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as all incoming resources was diverted towards caring for animals while the Wildlife Park was closed. When this facility is complete, Grant says there will be 40 animals that will benefit.

“Any animal that comes in and out of the park or any animal that needs to be separated for medical care, we never had a facility to do that for the large animals like the bison, the deer, big horn sheep,” he added, noting the park has a similar facility for smaller animals.

The quarantine facility is expected to be completed in 2021.