This past year was not great for SPCA adoptions with only 136 cats and dogs finding forever homes from June 2016 to June 2017.
These are bad numbers considering some previous years have seen over 200 adoptions, says Wanda Price with the Humboldt and District SPCA.
This also means that they are full with 39 dogs, 26 of those being puppies, and 39 cats, nine of those being kittens.
Considering the Humboldt shelter is a no kill facility, this means the only way they can make more room for animals is for cats and dogs to be adopted.
The problem right now is with finding homes for the numerous amount of cats and kittens that come through the SPCA with even more people knocking at the door.
And this is not just a problem in Humboldt, says Price.
“The rescues that do take cats, and there’s not very many, their foster homes are busting at the seems. They’re doubling because considering the issue but where do they go?”
Cats breed more in milder years so considering Saskatchewan has seen two mild winters, this has meant over population for animals that do not have a lot of options.
Price says that Facebook and Garage Sale sites are flooded with free cat ads but that does not help the over population problem because a free cat does not include the spay or neutering.
This is one of the reasons that Price is frustrated and would give up taking in cats, she says, which is why a lot of shelters decide not to take cats.
Price says that they cannot do that to the cats.
“We’ve got to help what we can but it isn’t very much...if I have the room I’ll take in any stray because they don’t have a shelter.”
With an overloaded shelter, there was plenty of talk on the Humboldt and District SPCA Facebook page about what to do about it; things like adoption drives and deals with vets.
The SPCA loses money when spaying and neutering cats, says Price, so while adoption drives would work to take some pressure off capacity, there are some things people need to consider.
Price would be willing try a two for one deal on spayed cats going to farms, but that means taking a $500 loss.
“It’s money we can’t afford to lose because we don’t have a proper income. We pay out everything.”
Even if Price was able to pull it off, even in the short term, that would not really help matters.
“I was thinking of doing that but then what? Within a week we’ll be overfull.”
After 10 years in her position, Price says she sees very little changing unless people start caring about spaying and neutering their pets.
Price recently posted on Facebook a need for puppy food, however that need has been full. Right now, any donations of kitten food is greatly appreciated.
