Penticton SPCA catching up after 65 cats surrendered from one home

PENTICTON – The Penticton-based SPCA shelter is struggling to get back to normal after dozens of cats were surrendered to the agency earlier this week.

“It’s still pretty crazy. We were able to transport 13 of the cats to another shelter, which has helped,” South Okanagan Similkameen SPCA Branch Manager Carolyn Hawkins said today, Sept. 20.

A total of 65 cats were surrendered, all coming out of a single residence. The branch closed for the day on Sept. 18 to deal with the feline influx.

Hawkins says she can’t say much about the cats’ situation, as it is part of a cruelty investigation.

“The owner decided to surrender them,” Hawkins says.

The shelter is in need of a number of items, including money, Hawkins says. More canned cat food is needed to help the cats keep up their nutrition, and the branch is running out of hand soap and clumping cat litter.

“Every cat has to be spayed and neutered,” she says, adding many of the cats are suffering from an upper respiratory illness, and because it’s contagious, some have to be isolated.

Hawkins says with the vaccinations, medical care and behaviour modification, the cats will need at least two weeks at the branch, at a cost of around $600 per cat.

She says many of the cats weren’t in good shape.

“Besides the respiratory illness, they were matted, thin and very fearful. They weren’t socialized at all,” Hawkins says.

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