Pet Save Sudbury sees increase in cats being abandoned by owners
A local organization that cares for animals in Sudbury is continuing to cope with the pandemic. Recently, officials with Pet Save said they have never seen so many cats at the shelter at one time.
Staff at Pet Save are currently caring for 130 kittens and approximately 100 cats.
The director of Pet Save, Jill Pessot, said these numbers are significantly higher compared to previous years.
"Normally at this time of the year, I'd be going on with either 60 or 70 cats and maybe 30 or 40 kittens. This year, we are going in with really high numbers," Pessot said. "This fall has been the busiest we’ve seen in over a dozen years."
Pessot said COVID-19 plays a factor and she is finding this year many people are just dumping their cats on the streets and leaving them to fend for themselves.
"Most of them are coming in friendly, so they were owned by somebody and they’ve been let go. So, when those cats are let go and they are unspayed and unneutered then we end up with them populating on the streets," she said. "So, that’s what we’re seeing a lot of this year. Normally, we see a high feral cat population compared to our domestics on the streets, and now we’re seeing a lot of domestics."
Not only does Pet Save have more than 200 cats to care for at this time, it just recently received 15 dogs from a northern community.
"We’ve got dogs, puppies, that sort of thing. And their temperatures are already dropping significantly up north.. some of them are already seeing snow," Pessot said. "So, we are looking to try to remove as many as we can to help keep those populations under control."
She said with the large influx of animals, more volunteers, dog walkers, and fosters are needed.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.