Thank you CBC North for this story.

Three puppies from the Northwest Territories arrived in Edmonton Wednesday night in hopes of finding new homes.

The dogs were transferred to the Edmonton Humane Society from the SPCA in Hay River.

"We jumped at the chance to help," Edmonton Humane Society spokesperson Shawna Randolph said.

The Hay River SPCA does not operate an animal shelter.

Instead, homeless dogs are placed in foster homes, and a small number of volunteers were having to turn animals away.

The Hay River SPCA put out a plea to other organizations to take the dogs, and the Edmonton Humane Society offered to help.

"They were freezing, and they were starving, and they could have died, definitely, if it wasn't for the Hay River SPCA," Randolph said. "It's extremely cold in the winter ... foster homes were full. It was a life and death situation."