B.C. fires separate many owners from their animals, and one even ends up painted pink

According to a story on globalnews.ca Thursday, only 12 new fires broke out in central British Columbia on Wednesday, bringing the total number of fires burning to 183. Only 22 of those are considered wildfires of note. So far, more than 78,000 hectacres (more than 190,000 acres) have been scorched since April 1 and around 10,000 people have been under evacuation alert since Monday night, according to the story.

But people aren’t the only ones being affected by the flames. According to a CBC News story, animal shelters are “overwhelmed” with evacuee pets, and many evacuees are being forced to leave their animals behind. And it’s not just dogs and cats. The Canadian Disaster Animal Response Team told CBC that they were helping 25 horses, four mules, a couple of sheep and 32 chickens, as of Wednesday.

Many owners have taken to social media to try to reconnect with their pets:

With all the sad news that’s been coming across the border this week, you might want to check out this lighter CBC story on how a horse, named Rosy, ended up being painted pink to help find her in the event she did get separated from her owners.

Social media is also buzzing about pictures of a a group of B.C. firefighters huddled around a campfire, ignoring the region’s fire ban:

According to a CTV story about the post, the B.C. Wildfire Service has launched an investigation into what happened.

This story was originally published July 13, 2017 at 2:16 PM with the headline "B.C. fires separate many owners from their animals, and one even ends up painted pink."