110 cats surrendered to Calgary Humane Society from single home

The Calgary Humane Society is feeling significant strain this week after taking in 110 cats and kittens that were surrendered from a single residence.

Peace officers with the shelter recently brought in the cats, which is putting pressure on its capacity and resources. The agency's public relations director Anna-Lee Fitzsimmons said the scale of the surrender makes it one of the largest single intakes of cats in years for the organization.

Fitzsimmons added that after the shelter has been operating at full capacity already for most of this year, the new intake means every kennel is full this morning, sometimes with multiple cats sharing one kennel due to lack of space and the cats coming from the same home.

"The last two years have been really tough for us. We've been operating at capacity and running a long waitlist, so nothing has changed there. The reality is we just never have an empty adoption centre," Fitzsimmons said.

A concerned citizen alerted peace officers to the home where the cats were found. The shelter initially thought there might be roughly 60 cats in the home. But they removed nearly double that over several days.

Most of the cats that were taken in are affiliative, Fitzsimmons says, meaning they exhibit behaviours to create positive social connections. Most are also in reasonably good health, with immediate medical attention given to the animals, and spay and neuter surgeries are already underway with the goal of completing all of these surgeries for the new cats before the December holidays.

Fitzsimmons noted that in the home where they found the 110 cats, none of the animals had been spayed or neutered, which is how the situation got out of control.

The humane society noted on Wednesday that many of the cats are already available for adoption. To ease the strain it's feeling, the organization called for community assistance via adopters, temporary foster homes and donations to support medical treatment, supplies and care.

Many of the cats have already been moved into foster homes, and the cats that are nursing kittens are in isolation. But the shelter is looking to house more than 100 cats before the holiday season.

"We're full and we're turning to the community for help," Fitzsimmons said.