Almost everywhere you look in the Quinte Humane Society’s shelter, you’re likely to see a cat.
Executive director Frank Rockett says they’ve gone to extreme lengths to house the felines.
“If there’s a spare corner in the building, it’s got a dog crate in it with a litterbox and bedding and a cat or two in there.”
The shelter has 187 cats in its care. A number of them are currently in foster homes, but that still leaves close to 150 cats housed in the shelter.
Rockett says they are well above capacity.
“We can hold about 80 cats and about 40 dogs.”
WATCH: Humane Society of Kawartha Lakes is full and looking for adopters
Cold weather is setting in, too, which Rockett says is worrying.
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“We need to have cats adopted out of the shelter as quickly as possible to make room for the cats that are going to be outside and feeling that frost and suffering for it,” Rockett said.
The shelter has a waiting list of roughly 200 cats needing housing that the Quinte Humane Society can’t take on until some on site are adopted.
Rockett says another way residents can help is with a financial donation if adoption isn’t an option.
The Humane Society charges an adoption fee but it doesn’t cover the full cost of caring for the animals at the shelter according to Rockett.
“On average, it’s $485 per cat that we take care of, and when we do an adoption, we get $140 back as an adoption fee,” Rockett said. “So there’s always that gap and that’s where the donations come into play.”
That $485 includes costs like spay and neutering, vaccinations, de-worming and de-fleaing the animals.
Rockett says the need for adopting pets and the strain on the Humane Society would be greatly reduced if pet owners spayed and neutered their animals.
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