New Brunswick SPCA waives adoption fee for adult cats for November

The cat rooms inside the Miramichi SPCA looked slightly less crowded than normal – a telling sign that their November initiative is doing what they hoped.

“I've never seen so much foot traffic coming in and out of the shelter, so many messages on our page, emails, everything like that,” said Drew Bowie who has been a shelter assistant for nearly four years now.

“It's been awesome. It's been like nothing I've seen yet while working here."

Normally, adoptions range between $65 to $125 for cats and kittens, but this month, adult cats are finding their forever homes for free.

"It tends to slow down kind of up until Christmas, so we're looking at maybe 10 adoptions a month versus in the last two weeks it's been 34,” said Bowie.

"The amount of people that we've been getting come in from out of province, out of city and all that stuff, its obvious the words getting out and other shelters have been giving us a lot of support saying it's a great idea and it's worked for them in the past. We're hoping good word will spread."

In just two weeks, 34 cats have been moved out of the shelter and into their forever home.

Bowie says a few months ago there were about 60 adult cats in their care and today, that number is in the 20 range.

The amount of adoptions is also quadruple what the shelter normally sees.

"Some of these cats have been with us for three and four years,” said executive director, Jennifer Arseneault.

“They were feral cats when we got them and they called this place home [...] so seeing them leave was incredible. There wasn't a dry eye in the building when they left."

The shelter saw a growing need in the community.

Arseneault says there were about 75 cats in house, about 15-16 in foster homes and 75 or 80 on the waiting list.

“They need to get out of the cold before the winter strikes and we just have so many cats in the building that weren't moving, so many on our waiting list that we just couldn't keep up, so we said 'let's try this and let's see what happens,’” she said.

A kitten climbs the cage at the Miramichi SPCA. (CTV/Alana Pickrell)Back in September, the Miramichi SPCA was at risk of closing due to a lack of funds.

Arseneault says the community rallied behind them, giving them a few months of security, however, she says while having enough money is always a concern, waving the adoption fee to help ensure they could help more cats before winter wasn’t a hard decision.

"We don't make any profit off any adoption anyway. We spay and neuter everybody we can, we microchip everyone, vaccinate, de-flea, de-worm, the whole nine yards, so we said 'you know what, let's see what happens,'” she said.

“If it brings in my foot traffic, if it brings in more attention it may in fact bring in more donations, it might bring in foster homes, volunteers, who knows. It can only have positive effects."

Multiple cats are waiting to be adopted at the Miramichi SPCA. (CTV/Alana Pickrell)So far, the shelter has seen adoptions from across New Brunswick and even out of province.

Staff say the parking lot has never been busier and applications are coming in at rapid rates.

"We're hopeful,” said Arseneault.

“We're heading in the right direction, so even if we can save more than what we could two weeks ago, then great. It's a win-win."

Bowie adds, "every other phone call is somebody that wants to surrender a cat whether it's they can't take it with them when they move or it's I found a mom and babies outside my house. It just never stops."

Although the adoption fee is waived for the rest of the month, those interested will still have to go through the regular adoption application process, but officials say it doesn’t take long to get approved and matched up with a new family member.

The goal is to adopt out at least another 40 adult felines before Dec. 1.

The free adoption doesn’t apply to kittens since they still need to be spayed and neutered, but there are several waiting to find their families at the shelter right now too.

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