(Image Credit: CFJC News)

By Sydney Chisholm

Stray cats

BC SPCA says increased cat care costs are behind service agreement stalemate with City of Kamloops

Apr 17, 2024 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS – The local branch of the BC SPCA is giving the City of Kamloops until the end of the month to reach a new agreement for kennelling stray cats.

For more than a decade, the BC SPCA has been contracted by the city to intake and kennel stray cats until they are either reclaimed by their owners or put up for adoption. That contract expired in December 2023.

Up until this year, the Kamloops BC SPCA has been receiving yearly grants from the City of Kamloops in exchange for these services.

Ashley Fontaine-Ost, BC SPCA senior manager of the Thompson-Nicola-Okanagan region, said 20 per cent of animals coming through the Kamloops branch are local stray cats.

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“Over the last five years, we’ve taken in more than 4,500 animals. Almost 900 of those were stray cats from within the City of Kamloops,” said Fontaine-Ost. “The amount of money that they were providing through grants was not even making a dent in the costs that it put onto the society to care for those animals.”

Despite the expired contract, the shelter has continued kennelling stray cats for the city. This will end May 1, 2024, if a new agreement isn’t reached.

“We’ve provided the city with a few extensions of services in hopes and good faith that we will come to an agreement for a contract,” she said. “Our final extension was provided until the end of April.”

As pound services are a municipal responsibility, once the contract extension expires, the local shelter says it is legally unable to take stray cats found in Kamloops.

According to the BC SPCA, the amount of the grant has not changed since 2016, while the cost of animal care has seen a dramatic increase.

“It does take up a lot of staffing resources to care for these cats. But we’re also looking at costs like spay/neuter, vaccinations, deworming, and then of course care for the animal while it’s here,” explained Fontaine-Ost. “We realized that there was a large gap in the services provided and the compensation that we were receiving and we needed to address that because we can no longer provide municipal services with donor dollars.”

In a written statement from the city’s community services manager, Will Beatty, the city says it has been working with the BC SPCA since last year and discussions are ongoing and confidential.

“Regardless of the outcome of negotiations, the city will continue to meet the animal needs of the community and maintain a positive working relationship with the BC SPCA as a token service provider in the community for animal welfare-related issues,” Beatty wrote.

The BC SPCA says it values its relationship with the City of Kamloops and hopes a new contract will be agreed upon in the coming weeks.