OUR HISTORY
The Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society began in 2006 as a small but mighty team of volunteers and foster homes. A school teacher who worked in a remote community noticed a large number of strays, and was handed a puppy one day and asked to find it a new home. Noticing the lack of animal services in remote communities, AARCS was established, helping 52 dogs in the first year of operations strictly through volunteers and foster homes.
In 2012, AARCS opened our first shelter in Northeast Calgary, designed to provide temporary housing, emergency shelter and quarantine for newly rescued animals. With a physical space, support for the organization grew, and within a few short years, we quickly outgrew the space.
In 2017 we moved into a new (to us) facility in southeast Calgary, dubbed AARCS Safe Haven & Veterinary Hospital. We outfitted a brand new onsite veterinary hospital, which allowed us to bring all veterinary care in-house, reducing costs, providing better care and improving program efficiencies. We still rely on foster homes to care for our animals, but this facility has granted us a space to provide much-needed care and emergency intake. Safe Haven is also a donation centre.
From 2020 – 2025, we operated an additional facility in Edmonton, Alberta. North Haven and AARCS Adoption Centre handled both intake and housing for newly rescued animals, as well as an onsite adoption facility. In 2025, we made the strategic decision to close North Haven in order to centralize our resources, maximize our impact, reduce costs, streamline operations and ensure consistent, high-quality care across Alberta.
Strategic Directions
A strategic plan is essential for us to provide direction, optimize resources and ensure long-term success in fulfilling our mission of caring for animals and serving our communities. AARCS’ current strategic plan is for the years 2023-2028 – view the PDF here!
1: Quality of Care
Evolve and elevate our approach to care by integrating the newest and best practices in animal welfare, fostering a compassionate organizational culture and strengthening the human-animal bond, ensuring we serve our animals, our people and our mission.
2: Revenue Generation and Stability
Ensure a balanced and sustainable approach to revenue generation and resource allocation, aligning financial stewardship with innovative strategies to attract and grow funding.
3: Effective Communication through Storytelling
Enhance communication efforts to share our mission and impact clearly and authentically across all audiences, including external stakeholders and internal stakeholders.