Overall it was a good year for the West Kootenay SPCA in Castlegar. Their annual general meeting was held last week and Rob Lindskog, interim branch manager, says there was a slight deficit of under $2,000 as things came up after the move to the new location.
“We moved into a new building last year and there’s often times unforeseen things, like some shelving here and there, that wasn’t anticipated. So all in all it was a good year.”
Over 500 animals were brought in and over 400 adopted out. The total of animals brought in does include those picked up by Bylaw and returned to their family. Last month alone over 30 were adopted and already there’s been about 15 in March.
The new location continues to be busy with people coming in for tours and the school visits have been going over really well, adds Lindskog.
“Just gets kids thinking about animal cruelty and how to approach animals especially if they have fears and stuff…… how to do it and how to do it safely.”
The SPCA’s spring break camps were just about full as of Friday as well.
One area Lindskog is hoping to focus on in future is partnering with local communities to deal with feral cats.
“Those are not adoptable animals. They’ll never be able to live in a home, so if we can help reduce that population and it also helps the song bird population.”
There are grants available for programs that spay and neuter the cats before re-releasing them.