Staff at the Kamloops SPCA were able to spay and neuter 440 cats in 2019 thanks to a $50,000 PetSmart Charities grant.

Community Engagement Manager Hayley Bennett says the subsidized spay and neuter surgeries were offered to residents on the North Shore last year.

“Running a program like this is a lot of work and it’s a lot of communication and figuring out hurdles and obstacles,” she told NL News. “We were really grateful to how our partners worked with us in making this happen. We made a real dent in the spay and neuter needs of the cat overpopulation situation in Kamloops.”

Bennett says the Kamloops SPCA still has the highest cat intake in the province.

And she says while staff are seeing results, addressing the cat overpopulation issue in the area will take several years.

“We seemed to get requests pretty much right up until the end and our staff worked really really hard to keep up with those,” Bennett noted.

“Near the end it tapered off a little bit, but we were getting requests all over the community but we were focusing on the North Shore and Brocklehurst areas because that was where the highest need was.”

The subsidized spay and neuter surgeries were offered in partnership with local veterinary clinics, and staff hope to keep it going in 2020.

“We ran out of spay and neuter grants in the end because we only had so much funding,” Bennett said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to address every single one received, but we sure did address I would say most of them.”

“We are continuing to seek out funding and develop programming to provide opportunities to support cat owners who need a helping hand.”