(Photo: courtesy of People for Animal Wellbeing Facebook)

A local animal shelter will now go by a new name.

The Greater Moncton SPCA unveiled its new identity under the name People for Animal Wellbeing

President Christian Moger says previously, there was always confusion over other organizations who go by a similar name, “There’s definitely some confusion out in the community between the Greater Moncton SPCA, the New Brunswick SPCA, you’ve got the Fredericton SPCA, Saint John SPCA, and so on and so on.   All great organizations, but based on a lot of the community surveys we’ve done, a lot of people consider those to fall under the same umbrella and all be the same organization. There was definitely a misconception if you gave to one, you gave to all or some thought we all were the same organization, which is not true at all. We’re not government funded. We’re totally funded by the community, ” Moger adds.

This process to rebrand under this new name ‘People for Animal Wellbeing has been ongoing for around two years now.

“It’s creating that distinction between ourselves and becoming a sort of a unique entity, that was a big piece of the puzzle. The other piece was, as the years have gone on, we’ve evolved to be really more than just an animal shelter. We still do all of the great work that we always have, but we’ve become far more community-focused. We have our second chance Food Bank, we do some work to help people who are in tough home situations, and as a safe haven for people who are hesitant to leave their pets behind. It was definitely the right time to make that change and become this larger community organization that we are today,” Moger says.

They used a local marketing firm, called Peach Marketing to look at the goals, and the purpose of the organization to come up with options and recommendations for the rebranding.

As for the name, Moger says, “We did pick the one that we liked the best, and then we also went and took that out to the community and did some testing. So every step along the way, we made sure nothing was done in a silo and we definitely reached out to the public to get their input because what they think matters most to us.”

During the pandemic, fundraising stopped for the organization, so Moger says they plan to unveil some new ideas in the coming months.

But this won’t include a fundraiser for a new shelter, “Just the general cost of construction and things in general., it’s definitely something that’s gone on the back burner. At this point in time, the goal is to really focus on the community. Seeing what upgrades we can do within our existing walls. For the short term, at least, we will not be looking at a new building. It’s going to be looking at making the best of what we have as we continue to recover from the past couple of years,” Moger adds.