Sask. cat rescue looking for permanent building after recent intake flood

With spring on the horizon, SOS Prairie Rescue is thinking about how to handle the feral cat population in the province.

The Saskatoon-based volunteer-run non-profit takes in abandoned and neglected cats with its foster program. Now, the group is desperately searching for a permanent building to work out of.

Without a building, the group has been relying solely on foster families to temporarily house saved cats.

The intake demand for the organization has been at an all-time high. SOS took in more than 75 cats in the two weeks leading up to Christmas.

"Cats came in a cage and they got dropped off at the door," Ashlyn Weninger, SOS's president, said. "It's just never ending, [we're] just trying to find a home for those cats and get them the health care they need while raising funds for the vetting."

The group has been searching for a space that will house it and the cats. Weninger said has been difficult due to some zoning not accepting animals.

Why securing a building is crucial

As intake levels continue to exceed what SOS can handle, Weninger said a building is needed now more than ever.

"We are just about always full, always at capacity, trying to help more cats." 

SOS has been using an industrial office space to house supplies and for cat drop-offs.

The group still plans to be foster-based, but hopes that a permanent building can provide space for the overflow of cats it receives, a place for animal vaccinations and more storage room for food and supplies.

"We've got about 80 active fosters, so we want a place where people can come in all the time and grab all the stuff they want," Maaike McGill, an SOS board member, said.

"We wanted a spot where, on Christmas Eve where we got 20-some cats dropped off, instead of panicking to figure out a spot for them to go to be fostered, we could bring them to a designated building."

SOS has partnerships with cat cafes in B.C., allowing cats from Saskatchewan to go up for adoption across Western Canada.

Taming the feral cat population in rural Saskatchewan

Although the group is based in Saskatoon, one of its main objectives is taming the feral cat population in rural Saskatchewan. It says it has helped more than 100 communities so far.

This past year alone, it received more than 100 cats from La Ronge and Stanley Mission.

SOS visits communities with rampant feral cat populations but no access to animal control or humane societies. SOS traps the cats, neuters them and releases them back into the community.

Weninger said there is nothing wrong with neutered wild cats, as they can help control rodents. But if left unneutered, the cats could cause problems with other animals, be prone to diseases and reproduce, causing the community to have a massive feral cat population on its hands.

"Saskatchewan is in a state of overpopulation for cats and dogs, and spaying and neutering is the only way out of that," Weninger said. "We have kitten season looming, so there's pressure to spay and neuter as many cats [as possible] before they start having kittens outside and the population grows."

The group also has programs put in place for accessible spray and neuter programs.

SOS took in more than 675 cats last year and works with more than 85 foster homes across the province.