Kitten rescue to exhibit at this weekend's Pet Expo
Gillian Shaw, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, January 21, 2006
VANCOUVER I Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue has rescued more than 700 cats and kittens in the past year, and when it opens its exhibit at Pet Expo today, some of the more than 20,000 pet lovers expected to attend no doubt will be lined up in hopes of adopting one of them.
VOKR is among more than 60 exhibitors at the annual Pet Expo which is open today and Sunday the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, offering everything from dog agility demonstrations to a pet fashion show.
For Karen Duncan, president of VOKR (www.orphankittenrescue.com), the Pet Expo provides an opportunity to connect with pet lovers who may want to adopt one of the many cats and kittens VOKR rescues and, even more importantly, to offer information on spaying and neutering and keeping cats safe in a city where cars and coyotes take a toll.
"We are going to take one kitten that is a bottle-feeder, possibly some others," Duncan said. "And we try and talk to the public a lot about spaying and neutering and we show them the work we do."
That work can mean answering a call, as VOKR did recently, to rescue 17 abandoned cats in an east-side backyard, or collecting a bag of newborn kittens that had been tied to a church door.
"We will get somebody feeding cats in their backyard out of the kindness of their heart and then the cats have
kittens and it gets out of control," said Duncan. "We've taken in 700 cats in the past year and it is going up every year.
"We've just had seven kittens sent down from Penticton by Air Canada cargo because their mother was hit by a car when the kittens were only nine days old."
The Pet Expo runs today and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets at the door are $9 for adults, $7 for seniors and students, $3 for children five to 11 years of age, and free for under-fives.
Attendees get $2 off their admission charge with a donation for the Vancouver Food Bank.
gshaw@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2006