Overflowing with felines, an Alberta animal shelter says 2018 has been the “worst year ever” for cats.
Tessa Lee, coordinator at the Whitecourt Homeless Animal Rescue Foundation, said the shelter has seen an influx of unwanted and abandoned cats.
“We have cats in dog kennels in the hallways, we have cats in guinea pig cages, I have cats in the spare bedrooms in my house,” Lee said.
“We have cats everywhere.”
Lee said WHARF has been at capacity since spring. It has been receiving up to 10 calls a day for personal surrenders.
“Broken cats, skinny cats, moms and kittens, bottle babies—it never ends,” Lee said.
But it’s not just Wharf who has seen a feline influx in 2018. Of four Edmonton rescue shelters CTV Edmonton spoke with on Sunday, all said they’ve stopped accepting cats due to a lack of space.
Some chalk the cat population spike up to feral colonies throughout the city, while others blame owners who do not hold onto their pets for longer than a few years.
Voice for Animals advocate Karin Nelson has taken in 12 cats to help out.
“Rescue isn’t what Voice for Animals primarily does, but the need is so great right now,” she explained.
Some have been given bedrooms, others the bathroom, and a family of kittens, the living room.
Adding that her assistance to the issue has meant a lot of scooping and feeding, she said, “I’m a cat slave!”
WHARF has run a cat program for 13 years.
“The cats are always an issue. There’s never enough space for cats. There’s always too many cats. People seem to not want to keep their cats for their whole lives,” said Lee.
She has used the current situation to spread a message: “When you get a kitten, you need to spay it or neuter it, vaccinate it, and then keep it. For its whole life.”
