C’ est fantastique – merci!

If you haven’t yet heard, I have great
news to share: the Ottawa Humane Society
is now offering our humane education programs in English and in French. This may seem
like a small milestone to you, but to me it’s a momentous event and the
fulfilment of a promise. I couldn’t be
more pleased.

The promise I am referring to is one I
made to a number people who contacted me early in my tenure about the lack of
OHS services and materials in French. At
the time, the OHS was living hand to mouth, and addressing their concerns would
have meant diverting very scarce resources away from animal rescue, care and welfare. There was simply no reasonable or acceptable way
to achieve what I knew the OHS should at that time. But I promised to move
forward on their concerns as soon as it was possible.

Now, because of your generosity, the
OHS can now help build compassion in thousands of local school children who
speak or study in French.

Of course, there is more work to
do. French humane education is not the
end of our journey to serve our entire community. While it is not realistic to offer everything
we do and everything we produce  in both
official languages — an endeavour that would cost many hundreds of thousands of
dollars annually — we have translated many of our key materials and that work is
continuing. We have hired and continue
to hire more bilingual staff
members. Certain public-facing positions require
bilingualism now. And overall I think we
are more open, more welcoming and more accessible to our French-speaking
community.

Thank you for helping us do it. Or rather, merci de nous aider à le faire.

Bruce Roney
Executive Director