In August, a sick cat tested positive for Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) at the Coquitlam Animal Shelter. More cats were suspected of also being infected.

And then the Coquitlam shelter did something truly amazing for an animal control agency. Instead of killing them all, it acted as though it was not a mere controller/disposer of unsellable animals. It looked for a way to practice real animal welfare, according to the standards of real animal welfare set by hundreds of little rescue groups for more than fifty years. It raised the money to test all the cats and it searched for alternatives to death.

Most big agencies, the pounds and still many SPCAs all over BC, kill any animal that is sick, or even may be sick. Killing is a huge cost savings of course. Real animal welfare costs money; animal disposal makes money.

The Coquitlam shelter sent out an appeal for funds to pay the $5,000 that testing every cat would cost. AAS sent $500. Then the staff searched for a place where the cats could be sheltered in a home-setting and be given the medical and hospice care that they required and deserved. They found it at Penny March's Forgotten Felines Surrey cat shelter.