The Mae Bachur Animal Shelter doesn't want your junk

The Mae Bachur Animal Shelter in Whitehorse has become a dumping ground. People are leavingfurniture, toys, clothes, books, electronics, old tires, and straight up trash.

"It's kind of junking up the front of the building," says Dan Moore, the executive director of the shelter.

The shelter traditionally takes donations of used goods to sell at a yard sale fundraiser.

In other years, people have asked permission to bring their items to the shelter, and they came down during regular hours.

This year, people are dropping off truckloads of items after hours.

Moore says it's been going on for at least six weeks.

He connects the dumping to a lack of recycling services in the city. The free store at the municipal dump shut down last fall, and the Salvation Army thrift store closedin the spring.

The thrift store and the free store closed, in part, because people were dropping off more trash than re-usable goods.

Costs $1,200 and mounting

Moore is contending with the same issue.

"I was a little surprised and disappointed when you look at some of the items you get," says Moore.

He says someone came by and tried to drop off a truck-load of old tires. There are stinky old mattresses, dirty office chairs and cigarette burned couches.

A month ago, Moore rented a big dumpster to put garbage into. It's been emptied four times since.

"We close at six, and people are dropping things off at eight, 10o'clock, sometimes later ... and we're just left to deal with it in the morning. We're not able to go through it and say, this is no use to us."

The problem is costing the shelter money.They are paying to rent the dumpster, and they pay tipping fees at the dump.

"We're around the $1,200 mark now," says Moore.

He asked the city if they would waive tipping fees. Moore says the city denied the request.

'Bylaw will have to get involved'

Peter O'Blenes, the city's director of Infrastructure and Operations, says the city is still looking at the donation model being used by the shelter.

O'Blenes didn't realize the shelter wasn't asking for people to drop off donations.

"Bylaw will have to get involved and start ticketing people who are dumping."

The shelter raised $7,000 at last year's sale. Moore says the fundraiser won't be viable if the costs continue to add up.

He took photos of the piles of junk in front of the shelter and wrote a blurb about it on the shelter'sFacebook page. Right away, three women came in trucks and hauled away most of the garbage that had been dropped off the night before. They also paid the tipping fees.

The post also generated a conversation about the lack of services in the city. Maybe the situation the shelter isfacing is a good thing, Mooresays, if it leads to solutions for people taking responsibility for their trash.