Kamloops SPCA building shelters for stray cats across the city

KAMLOOPS – Kamloops is experiencing a cat crisis.

According to the Kamloops BC SPCA, the city and its outlying areas have one of the worst stray cat issues in the province.

With colder temperatures here, Deirdre Campbell and the Kamloops SPCA have come up with an idea to help give stray cats a fighting chance this winter.

Campbell, the SPCA’s regional humane educator, is working to get the community involved in the creation of cat shelters.

“We’ve held one workshop, but we’re holding two in total, and at each workshop we’ve had 45 participants and we’ve been able to make over 20 shelters,” Campbell said. “So, we’ve been able to get quite a few out there into the community, but it’s something that we want to do more of, so if people are interested, we want to hear about it.”

The shelters, constructed out of plastic storage totes, styrofoam, and straw, can be picked up by community members to be placed in neighbourhoods where there are many feral cats.

“Kamloops and the TNRD have been identified as having a cat crisis, or a cat overpopulation issue,” Campbell said. “Kamloops actually has a lot of cat colonies or feral cats, or community cats is what they’re called.”

Cat colonies are growing in communities like Barnhartvale and the Mount Paul industrial area.

This happens when people abandon their pets, or choose not to spay or neuter their outdoor cats.

“A lot of the time these colonies, you know, we’re doing the trap, neuter, return, and we’re trying to deal with the population in that way,” Campbell said. “But we have people who have their own pets, and they’re outdoor cats, and they’re not spaying and neutering them, and they’re going and adding to these colonies and then coming home.

“So, it’s just a gentle reminder to everybody to spay and neuter your pets. That’s the best way to deal with this overpopulation issue.”

While stray kittens can be socialized, adult cats are not as easy to foster or adopt, leaving them out in the cold.

The cat shelters are one way Kamloops residents can protect these animals from the elements.

“It’s one less hazard they have to worry about during the winter, because they already have to face so many with predators, looking for food, stuff like that,” Campbell said. “It’s just one way to help our community cats and let people know a little bit more about the issue, about these community cats.”

A second shelter-building workshop will be held on Saturday (Nov. 30). The workshop is sold-out, but the SPCA is willing to add a third if there is enough interest.

Anyone who would like to help, or knows of a location that would be ideal for one of the shelters to be placed can email the SPCA at kamloops@spca.bc.ca.