Cats on the move: 175 cats travelling from northern to southern Ontario for adoption

175 cats from northern Ontario are hitting the road this week, on their way to animal welfare agencies in southern Ontario to be adopted.

The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) is collecting 100 felines in Dryden, rounded up from overcrowded shelters in that community, as well as Kenora.

At the same time, the Welland & District Humane Society is picking up another 75 catsfrom Wawa.

"About 80 per cent of these cats have already been spayed and neutered, but the rescues in Kenora and Dryden are full beyond capacity, so they reached out to us, and collaborating with Welland, we're able to move them out and help them out," saidJudyDecicco, the northern representative for theOSPCA.

She said the cats should be able to find homes in southern Ontario.

"There's a bigger population base down there for adoptions than there is in the north. And we've been very successful adopting animals out of our affiliates, our provincial affiliates," in the past, she said.

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While theOSPCAhas transferred animals from northern Ontario to southern Ontario in the past,this is their biggest transfer of cats to date, she said.

An animal care worker from Toronto will travel with the cats, which will be drivenin a trailer to their destinations.

Some of the 175 cats will end up at the humane society in Welland while others are destined for Newmarket and Collingwood.