February 22 1999
Province

Cat saviour collects the pennies that mean lives

Bunny and Ratface the rabbits are celebrating the Year of the Rabbit with a new roommate of the feline kind in their apartment in Vancouver’s Fairview area.

That’s because their owner, Brian Spurr gets his back up when he thinks of the thousands of unwanted cats destroyed every year. To tackle the problem, Spurr makes himself a bit of a pest around his large office throughout the year, bugging co-workers for unwanted pennies, which he rolls into cash donations for Lower Mainland animal shelters.

One day, he walked into the SPCA office in Vancouver, politely unfurled $420 in bills and asked the officer on duty for a receipt for the donation. “I said,” By the way, do you have any old cats that are going to be euthanized?”

“The woman behind the counter just looked at me and said, ‘We don’t give them away.”

“ I was shocked. As I left, I said, ‘O thanks,’ and she said, ‘Thanks.’ I thought for a second she wasn’t going to thank me at all.

But Spurr is a man with a mission. When he noticed an ad for Royal City Humane Society, he called and made arrangements to pick up Bart the cat on Dec 14.

“The woman said he must have been a stray for quite a while,” said Spurr. “He growls when you go to touch him. But with the proper amount of attention I think he’ll be a great pet.”

Bunny and Ratface have had their curiosity aroused by Bart. “He outweighs each of them by about 10 pounds, but they chase him so he runs away,” said Spurr, adding that Bart has become more people friendly by the day.

Brian Nelson, the SPCA’s director of field operations for the Vancouver region, understands Spurr’s regrets over being unable to save one unwanted cat, but the policy on not giving cats away is a firm one.

“There are a number of reasons.” Nelson said. “One is we have to fund our spay and neuter program. We’re self funding.”

The 10 SPCA shelters in the region took in 27,000 animals last year. Of 15,000 cats among them, suitable homes were found for 8,000, while the other 7,000 were put down.

“It’s a staggering problem,” said Nelson. “But the numbers are coming down every year. In 1977, for example, we had to put down 50,000 to 60,000 cats, so the public is getting wiser about the need to spay and neuter pets.”