SASKATOON – There was an overwhelming response from the public on Sunday to the Saskatoon SPCA’s cat adoption drive.
The shelter announced it had hit capacity as the number of unwanted and stray felines continues to surge.
As a result, the SPCA was forced to stop accepting cats surrendered by their owners.
“I’ve been working at the SPCA for six years and I’ve never seen us get to the point where we were turning away owner-surrender animals, we are a full admission shelter and that is something that we’d never had to do in the past,” said the SPCA’s Tricia McAuley.
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McAuley says it’s a problem facing much of North America.
“It really boils down to people needing to spay and neuter their pets and really promote responsible pet ownership, for example in Saskatoon it’s actually against the city bylaw to let your cats roam at large and that’s how a lot of cats end up here at the Saskatoon SPCA,” she said.
To avoid having to euthanize the animals the SPCA offered a one day special on Sunday where the near $200 adoption fee dropped to just $10.
That included spay or neuter surgery, microchip implantation, complimentary health examination, vaccinations and six weeks of pet insurance.
The response was astonishing; people queued out the doors into the parking lot.
“I am pleasantly overwhelmed by the turnout today, we knew it was going to be busy, no idea it was going to be this busy so this is really exciting,” said McAuley.
Despite the desperation to find the cats a home the SPCA still maintained its adoption protocols to ensure every one of them is cared for appropriately.
“We screen all of our adopters and make sure it’s the best home for the animal based on the answers that the potential adopter gives us and we definitely want to make sure that this is not an impulse decision,” said McAuley.
The SPCA is hoping the shelter will be empty come Monday morning.
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