150 cats rescued from B.C. home need urgent medical care: SPCA

The B.C. SPCAsays it has started finding foster homes and providing medical care for some of the more than 200 cats and kittens that were surrendered by a man in Houston, B.C., last week.

Kim Monteith, the organization's manager of animal welfare, has travelled to thecommunity about 300 kilometres west of Prince Georgeto oversee the intake of the animals.

On initial assessment, it has been determined that more than 150 of the animals are in need of urgent medical care and are being examined and transported to either foster homes or care centres. The remaining cats are relatively healthy.

The operation is one of the largest ever undertaken by the animal welfare organization, and is expected to significantly drain their resources, said Eileen Drever, senior officer with the society.

'A cautionary tale'

The cats had been in the care of Bruce Robinson, a former mill worker who said the situationstarted four years ago when he began caring for a handful of cats that were dropped off at his property by people in the community of approximately 2,000 people.

At first he paid to have them spayed and neutered but when he received a cat he didn't know was pregnant, he said he could no longer afford to keep up with the vet bills associated with the treatment.

"Six cats turned into 14 cats, 14 cats turned into 32, and it was growing quickly," he said in an interview with CBCDaybreak North.

Daybreak North11:13Cats, cats, and more cats

Houston man says his 300 cats is a cautionary tale

Then, he says, other people started anonymously dropping animals off at his home.

"There would be a boxful of kittens ... or two mothers that were pregnant," he said. "I don't know why they would do that."

In the end, he estimates he was caring for what was close to 300 cats though the SPCA put the number closer to 200.

Robinson said he was starving himself in order to pay for food and supplies to look after them.

"I love every one of them," he said. "I wanted to give them a safe home."

WATCH | Bruce Robinson explains how he ended up with hundreds of cats:

More kittens for B.C. man living with 300 cats in his trailer

5 months ago

Duration 6:00

Bruce Robinson, who called the B.C. SPCA on himself because he couldnt care for hundreds of cats, tells Gloria Macarenko his cats had three more litters, with six kittens in each one of them. This means a total of 340 cats are now living in his trailer in Houston.

However, after taking stock of his situation he realized he could no longer provide the basics needed to look after the animals, at which point he called the SPCA for help.

"Kudos to him for recognizing he was overwhelmed," Drever said, adding she was impressed at how much effort Robinson had made to look after the animals.

Robinson said he came forward to warn people about how quickly an attempt to look after a handful of animals in need can snowball into an unmanageable situation.

"It's a cautionary tale," he said.