MONCTON – After 17 cats from the same home were surrendered to the Greater Moncton SPCA, the association is hoping more people will come forward to adopt.
The cats were all ages and they arrived in various health conditions. Some are semi-feral and some are pregnant.
The SPCA’s director of animal welfare says they were asked to step-in after residents complained about the smell and noise.
“We said that we would help, so the municipality did go in and speak to the gentleman. It was a voluntary surrender,” said Nanette Pearl.
Not all of the cats on the property were captured and Pearl says the shelter is expecting to receive about the same number of cats again from the home in the near future.
The surrender made up only a small portion of the total number of cats that arrived at the shelter this week.
“We had half a dozen this morning before we even got our feet on the ground,” said Pearl, who added the shelter received about 60 cats in total this week.
Pearl said the shelter receives between 4,000 and 7,000 animals each year and about 80 per cent of those are cats.
Unfortunately, they only have room for about 60 cats at a time.
“Our adoption rooms have eight in one, 17 in the other and we have the kitten room as well with the kennels,” Pearl said. “If they come in together, they’re housed together, so the numbers would go up in housing. There’s also the pound area, the holding area before they’re assessed.”
This means that sometimes the cats are euthanized, if the shelter is not able to place them in foster homes or find people to adopt them.
“One female cat and her offspring left un-neutered and un-spayed could be responsible for 420,000 cats in seven years,” Pearl said.
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