The Greater Victoria Animal Crusaders Rescue (GVAC) and the Prince Albert SPCA have undertaken a huge collaborative project to relocate 55 cats and kittens from Saskatchewan to British Columbia.
GVAC president Sharene Foord said Sunday there are about 10 cats left, but lots of applications still to go through. She expects they’ll soon all be gone with a couple of phone calls.
“We are very lucky that we have a supportive community of people that want to adopt instead of buying pets because without adopters we can’t rescue,” Foord said.
READ MORE: Cat cull in Lorette, Manitoba stirs controversy
Earlier this month, the Prince Albert SPCA had faced a large influx of felines and reached out to other animal shelters in an effort to save 70 cats from euthanasia.
All 55 animals were driven across Western Canada in two vans, which arrived in Victoria on Thursday.
“I mean logistically, that many cats in two vehicles, I imagine it was a very large undertaking just to pack them up, keeping everybody fed and watered and happy,” Foord said.
READ MORE: Calgary ‘rabbit enthusiasts’ sentenced after 92 animals seized from home in 2014
Foord said the project’s positive result means it will likely not be the last.
“Nothing in the works, but this was so successful and we had so many people that didn’t get cats, that’s the crazy thing, that this weekend the number of applications that came in far exceeded the availability. So we absolutely would like to entertain something like this again,” Foord said.
“We hope so.”
In the future, Foord said flights are the next step to improve the process.
“We will need to do I think though is to facilitate flights, it was a big deal for Saskatchewan people to drive them out here,” Foord said.