Country musician Reed Salmon didn’t set out to be a hero — but he may have inadvertently become one for stray dogs in Alberta.
When the temperature dips down to -27°C and -30°C, we’re not the only ones who are cold. In many of Alberta’s rural communities, stray dogs have nowhere to go and stay warm when the cold snap sets in.
Reed Salmon, an animal rights activist and country musician hailing from Red Deer, Alberta, is taking matters into his own hands. He’s recently been documenting his experiences on social media, which has earned him 10.6 k followers on TikTok. He’s performed rescues in communities like Cochrane and throughout southern Alberta while working with local animal shelters to find loving homes for displaced dogs.
While he mostly focuses on dog rescues, his passion for animals is clear. “It takes an army,” he said in a video. “It’s going to get to -35°C this weekend. The dogs can’t survive.”
Hay bales for warmth
In his videos, Salmon demonstrates how hay bales can be used as insulation to protect animals from the cold.
“It’s -27°C here right now and dogs are freezing,” he said in a video filmed in Cochrane, Alberta. “There is a crisis across Canada and we’re trying to help. We brought out 400 bales here today to a community outside of Calgary, Alberta — and we’re not even gonna scratch the surface.”
Stray dogs can be found in many rural southern Alberta communities, and unexpected puppy litters are common on farms and ranches in and around the prairies. Many owners aren’t aware of stray dogs on their property, and Salmon says it’s important to think about their well-being in the extreme cold.
In a video titled, “A day spent delivering bales and saving lives in -27°C“, Salmon can be seen offloading bales of straw to keep stray dogs insulated throughout rural Alberta.
“Straw is probably the best thing you can use as an insulator to keep animals warm,” he said. “When it comes wintertime, we try to be proactive because we’re in Canada, it’s gonna get to be -50°C. A lot of these dogs are left to fend for themselves. They’ll find a brush pile or something to hide under. But the best thing to do with the straw is to build a straw hut. You stack the sides, build the top — it takes 30 seconds to build — then you fill it with loose straw when you’re done.”
Salmon says if residents have stray dogs around their house, the best thing to do is surrender them to a rescue. But many animal shelters in and around Calgary are currently full.
“The formula is to spay/neuter your pet no matter what, end the mass breeding and the year-round breeding,” said Salmon. “We have puppies being born in extreme heat and extreme cold temperatures. At the end of the day, who gets to suffer? The animals, at the hands of us. And it’s not fair to them.”
The Reed Salmon Foundation is currently seeking support and donations by email. You can also follow along with his work on social media.
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