Dog Tales celebrates their five-year anniversary by opening an animal hospital

Dog Tales’ plan to build an animal hospital to further the cause of dog rescues

(Pupsi, one of the dogs that reside in Dog Tales, King City. (Michael Phoon/Toronto Observer)

After five years as one of Ontario’s most luxurious dog rescue and horse sanctuaries, the owners of Dog Tales in King City are taking on an ambitious expansion. They plan to register as a charity and open an animal hospital on their land, as a way to celebrate their five-year milestone.

“We are building an animal hospital, it has been three years in the making, with permitting, signing approvals, and everything else,” Robert Scheinberg told the Toronto Observer in an interview in late October 2019. “We finally broke ground about three months ago and we will be open or finished by December 2020.”

Dog Tales has 100-acres of land in total and the animal hospital is set to be 54,000-square-feet on the facility’s 48-acres of land. It will be constructed by PCL Construction, a leading firm.

The facility will offer multiple medical services with advanced technological equipment, including CT and MRI scanners. In addition, the facility will provides services from veterinary care to emergency surgery, with an animal holistic centre, water therapy, and more.

“We’ve had three years of planning with many consultants, you know, from the veterinary world to pretty much, to the cat world, to the dogs,” Scheinberg said. “We are going to have a holistic centre there. We are also going to have underwater therapy for dogs and horses. We are going to have MRI and CT scanners like a top of the line hospital for Ontario.”

Scheinberg said the animal hospital will be open to the public and will run a 24-hour clinic. There will be 80 full-time staff working in the animal hospital, because the owner feels is important that the service is accessible and affordable for anyone.

Dog Tales was founded in 2014 by Scheinberg and his wife when the couple became involved in dog rescues.

Until then, Scheinberg was a real-estate agent and Danielle Eden-Scheinberg was an Israeli actor. After settling down in King City, they decided to open Dog Tales to help dogs in need.

Dog Tales is a dog rescue and horse sanctuary that became a temporary home for 150 rescue dogs. It is set on land filled with grass fields, rolling slopes, and forested areas in King City. Dog Tales currently has 54 staff members, with 129 dogs in their facility. Over 2,000 dogs have been adopted by the public over the last five years.

Scheinberg recalled that his wife has been the organization’s planner and designer.

“She was the motivation and she came up with the idea,” Scheinberg said. “She designed the whole place. She wanted to have the feel for the dogs and the animals like it’s a home away from home. She wanted to kind of stay away from the typical shelters that there are out there and make the dogs more comfortable in their surroundings.”

Elizabeth Marroquin, a server in the restaurant inside of Dog Tales, talked about the environment of Dog Tales, and what it is like working as the organization reached their fifth year on Oct. 19, 2019.

“I was hired here to work in the cafeteria area,” Marroquin said in an interview. “I see that they are super nice to their animals. It’s like a very peaceful environment here. It’s super peaceful and beautiful.”

Dog Tales has given Seneca College the opportunity to be involved in the animal hospital, in the veterinary technician and veterinary assistant program offered at Seneca’s King City campus. The opportunity will allow Seneca College students that are enrolled in the program to have co-op and internship experiences.

Doug Raven, CEO at the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, told the Toronto Observer that a shortage of licensed veterinarians is the main issue for animal hospitals and clinics, for not only Ontario but all of Canada.

“The issue is right now, across North America, veterinary practices are having a hard time finding licensed veterinarians to hire and to work in the practice,” Raven said, in an interview. “So, there are roughly 400 veterinary graduates each year in Canada and veterinary practices are having a hard time finding people who are available to work.”

Scheinberg said that the possibility of the co-op and internship program will allow expansion of animal care, and hiring licensed veterinarians is a part of the plan, as well.

When Scheinberg is asked what Dog Tales is like after five-years since its opening, he describes it as a place people must see.

“Dog Tales, I think, is a destination for people from Ontario to come and visit even if they don’t plan to adopt a dog, just to see the grounds,” Scheinberg said. “I think it’s also raising awareness for dog rescues, not just ours.”

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Posted: Dec 26 2019 9:47 pm
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