KENORA — The cat shelter at 725 Railway St. is filled to capacity, with many more felines on a waitlist to get in. “We’re in a state of emergency,” shelter volunteer Lisa Lyle says.
The shelter, which runs on volunteer labour and donations, has instituted an “intake freeze” as it struggles to find homes for scores of furry beings.
While 90 cats are in the building, another 20 or so are in the care of kindhearted volunteers off-site.
What’s more, more than 80 cats are on the shelter’s “surrender list.” That means people have contacted the shelter wanting to bring the cats in.
“We’re overwhelmed,” Lyle said Tuesday.
“We’ve got 12 communities surrounding us, and we have animals coming from outside of Kenora on a constant basis,” she said.
“For right now, we really need people to spay and neuter their animals, keep them inside and start being responsible. And, you know, that’s a good start.
“But other than that, we need volunteers, and we need money.”
Aside from $1,000 every year from a nearby municipality, Lyle said, the shelter gets “zero funding from any level of government.”
Just addressing immediate veterinary needs will cost the shelter tens of thousands of dollars, she said.
Lyle said the shelter’s volunteers are looking for benefactors and trying to secure charitable status to make fundraising easier, “But it’s a slow process because we’re all trying to squeeze all these things in as we’re working or, you know, trying to do other things other than cleaning cat poop and being here taking care of the animals.”
A nine-minute video posted on the Kenora Cat Shelter’s Facebook page explains the situation in detail and says, “We’re all in a very, very tough place right now.”
The shelter’s website has information on cats available for adoption and how to donate or volunteer.
