Qualicum Beach, British Columbia · 22 acres · Ocean across the road
When there are no other options, we are the yes.
Bear's Buddies is Vancouver Island's first hospice and palliative medicine sanctuary for companion animals. Senior, medically fragile and unadoptable animals come here to be cared for properly, and to be held through every part of what comes next.
Our mission
A permanent home and a peaceful ending for the animals who have nowhere else to go.
Most rescues take the animals who still have a long life ahead of them, and that work matters enormously. Bear's Buddies exists for the ones further down the list, the fourteen year old with kidney disease, the dog nobody can place, the cat whose person died and left no plan. These are the animals who get a phone call that ends in euthanasia, and we would very much like that call to come to us instead.
We are a full hospice and palliative medicine sanctuary, so our residents receive the same depth of care you would want for your own animal at the end of their life. Some will be with us for years and some for a few weeks, and either way they are ours from the day they arrive.
What happens here
Care that most animals in this position never get offered.
Hospice and palliative medicine
Every resident, every day
Pain management, mobility support, nursing care and quality of life assessment, done properly and done often. We treat the individual rather than the disease, and we adjust as the animal changes.
Eastern and western medicine together
TCVM certified for 26 years
Acupuncture, herbal medicine, food therapy, massage, hydrotherapy, laser therapy and aromatherapy, with western medicine used whenever it is the right tool. Very few vets in Canada work fluently across both.
A home, not a kennel row
Residents live with the family
Our canine residents live in the house with us, on the couches and at our feet and in our beds. They have 22 forested acres to wander and the ocean air across the road.
Meet a resident
Noah was booked for euthanasia. He is now the loudest voice on the property.
Noah is a fifteen year old Cocker Spaniel who arrived with a broken pelvis and a deep tissue skin infection that had gone far too long without treatment. A hospital called us before the appointment, we spoke with his family, and they agreed to release him into our care.
He is still here, still spry, and still convinced that every meal is the best thing that has ever happened to anyone. He is the reason we answer the phone.
Being built right now
Three cat houses and a fully enclosed catio.
We share our sky with bald eagles, and on this part of the Island an unsupervised cat outdoors is genuinely at risk from eagles, coyotes and cougars. So the cats are getting a proper solution rather than a compromise, which means three cat houses and a fully enclosed catio where they can sit in real sunshine, watch the trees move and feel outdoor air without ever being exposed.
The framing and the fencing are the expensive part. Every dollar donated right now goes straight into finishing it, because until it is finished we cannot say yes to the cats who are waiting.
We are not just an end of life facility. We are a full hospice and palliative medicine sanctuary, and we hold them through every part of their journey.Dr. Atkinson-Spinks, Founder
How you can help
- Give once or monthly through Zeffy, where one hundred percent of your gift reaches the animals
- Send supplies, from senior diets and orthopaedic beds to fencing and building materials
- Volunteer your hands, your trade, your truck or your Saturday
- Share a resident's story with someone who would want to know this place exists