A week after appealing for pet food, the Humane Society London and Middlesex is now asking for financial donations as it copes with a sudden increase of 151 cats.
The felines were rescued from a single location in Oxford County on Monday. Neither the Humane Society nor OPP would confirm the cats were removed from a motel room in the Woodstock area.
Four members of the humane society animal protection team, with the assistance of police officers, removed the animals from the site and brought them to the agency's shelter on Clarke Road.
"Upon arrival, the felines were brought inside the shelter," said humane society Executive Director Steve Ryall. "We had set-up a triage station and from there the felines were assigned to different rooms based on their needs. Some of those were just food and water, some with flea removal and a few that had some other medical issues."
The humane society remained closed to the public for the entire day as it worked to assess each of the felines, which ranged in age from kitten to senior cats.
Overall the bulk of the cats were in fairly good condition, said Ryall.
"But as time goes on we will learn more. Sometimes health issues will arise a few days later after the stress of everything, as the cats calm down and we are able to see more," Ryall stated.
The shelter is well stocked up on pet food thanks to the generosity of community members, who rose to an urgent appeal for wet and dry food donations made last week by the non-profit agency.
"We were overwhelmed with the response of food donations, stacking bags of food to handle all the food that we got," said Ryall. "It was great timing because now we are feeding an extra 300 meals or more a day."
The humane society is now asking the community to step up once again, this time with financial donations to help cover the cost of veterinarian bills and increased staff hours associated with taking in such a large, unexpected number of cats.
Donations can be made through the humane society's website or by clicking here.