The chief prevention officer of the SPCA says the province should reconsider adding serval cats to its list of alien species.

Marcie Moriarty says the exotic cats from Africa can cause problems and are very profitable for breeders.

“It’s kind of incredible, they sell for anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 dollars. Quite frankly it’s a fad pet, and sadly they’re not banned under our provincial controlled alien species legislation. And so we really rely on municipalities to have exotic pet bylaws that would ban these types of cats. They are not pets.”

Moriarty’s comments come after 13 serval cats were seized yesterday from a breeder in Little Fort, the Camnish Exotic Cattery, which the SPCA said were living in “horrific” conditions in RVs.

Meanwhile, Moriarty says contrary to rumours circulating on social media, one of the owners of an exotic cat breeding business in Little Fort has not taken their own life, adding she is currently in medical care.

“When we execute a warrant, it absolutely can be extremely troubling for the animal owners involved, and we recognize this. We care both about human and animal lives, and so we do work with those individuals to offer support or to connect with the services they may need.”

The website for Cmnish claims the company is the top breeder of servals in Canada.

The SPCA was alerted to the breeder after reports of sick or injured animals were sold.

– with files from Brett Mineer