Running back to the rescue Bombers star Oliveira and girlfriend spend off-season documenting efforts saving dogs By: Taylor Allen Posted: 7:00 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/12/2022 (769 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You can find Brady Oliveira bulldozing his way through defenders on the football field, but someday soon, you might also find the Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back on your favourite streaming service.

Oliveira and his girlfriend Alex Blumberg recently launched a new video miniseries with The Dodo — a brand that shares animal-related stories and videos to its millions of social media followers — called Running Back to the Rescue. The series follows Oliveira and Blumberg as they rescue dogs, that are often injured and/or underfed, in uninhabitable environments.

You can watch the series on YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms.

Oliveira and Blumberg have been doing animal rescue missions in Manitoba for several years (in fact, that’s how they first met).

Season 1 of the show details their expedition to Mexico last winter.

The couple’s work locally caught the attention of The Dodo, leading to the site reaching out with the idea.

“It’s very exciting. This is kind of small scale, but the bigger picture is to start pitching it to Netflix, Disney, Amazon, and all those things, which we’ll start doing in the coming months,” Oliveira told the Free Press on Thursday.

“Hopefully a large production TV show comes from this and that’s really just to raise awareness, have more eyes on this issue, and get more people involved.”

In a few weeks, Oliveira and Blumberg leave for Bali for two months to film Season 2. Southeast Asian countries are extremely overpopulated with stray dogs.

Warning: the following paragraph is not easy to read.

“The rescue we’re teaming with in Bali just posted on Instagram yesterday that lots of dogs in Bali, even owned dogs, have been going missing. People are killing dogs for the meat trade so they can sell it for, I guess, the holidays and people buy it. Apparently, it’s illegal to sell it but it’s not illegal to consume it, which is crazy,” said Oliveira.

“They’re trapping dogs with snares around their stomachs and there was this one dog literally in the street with a snare gashed into its skin. It was disgusting. They brought it into the vet and thank God for this lady we’re teaming with because she saved this dog’s life. That dog literally escaped the meat trade which is nuts.”

Oliveira hopes this series, and eventually a show, can take them all over the world to save dogs. That doesn’t mean the 25-year-old Winnipegger isn’t focused on pro football. Oliveira said he wouldn’t go on any trip that wouldn’t have the necessities for him to train like he does back home.

Last season was Oliveira’s first full season as the team’s starting tailback. He finished the 2022 campaign with 1,001 rushing yards, five touchdowns, and a 4.96 yards per carry average.

“They’re trapping dogs with snares around their stomachs and there was this one dog literally in the street with a snare gashed into its skin. It was disgusting. They brought it into the vet and thank God for this lady we’re teaming with because she saved this dog’s life. That dog literally escaped the meat trade.”–Brady Oliveira

“I found the most amazing gym, which I’m so excited to get (to in Bali), because I’m going to have the best off-season of my life… It has everything you need… (and) it also has a recovery component to the gym,” said Oliveira.

“It has stream rooms in there, saunas, and cold tubs, which I’m so big on. The reason why I got through such a long season this year and all the touches that I got was because I lived in the pool, I lived in the sauna, I lived in the cold tub, and I made sure every single day I did those things because I know how important those things are for recovery. No gym in Winnipeg has those amenities.”

Oliveira and Blumberg brought six dogs back from Mexico to Vancouver — where Blumberg has relatives — for adoption. There was one in particular that stood out: Mija.

On the third day of their seven-week trip, they found Mija laying in the middle of the road. Mija had maybe a few days left in her and had a defeated look in her eyes. She was skin and bone and had no hair on her body.

“It was heartbreaking,” said Oliveira.

They took Mija to the vet right away and she ended up spending 10 hours there. Oliveira and Blumberg brought her back to their AirBnB and nursed her back to health for the rest of their stay. There were several more trips to the vet in the following weeks as Oliveira and Blumberg weren’t sure if Mija was going to make it, but thankfully, she did.

“We forced our love on her and she was a fighter through the whole journey. Just seeing how resilient she was and her will to keep fighting was so amazing. We were probably the most picky about Mija with where she was going to go for her forever home. She was the only dog that didn’t have an actual adoptive family yet when we got to Vancouver. This was mainly Alex. Alex was grilling the applications we got from people that wanted to adopt Mija,” said Oliveira.

“That was Alex’s little baby and we ended up finding the perfect owner for Mija. It’s a lady that’s a veterinarian and she brings Mija to work every single day. It was just a perfect fit.”

“It was truly special, but it’s a sad reality of what far too many dogs go through in those types of places.”

For those that want to help, Oliveira has several suggestions.

“I think opening your home to fostering is the biggest thing. The rescue I volunteer with here is K9 Advocates and we can’t do any of the work that we do if we don’t have any fostering help. Open your home to foster, adopt a dog instead of buying a dog because there’s so many dogs out there that need a loving home. If dogs don’t get adopted, most get euthanized because shelters are overfilling. But if you can’t do any of those and you still want to help out, just spread the word.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31