A big haul of cats comes through North Bay

It was a journey that took over 30 hours of driving, but Janet Bredin believes it is well worth it.  

Bredin traveled from North Bay to Dryden and return, bringing with her a trailer full of 70 cats she picked up from an animal rescue in northwestern Ontario.    

The North Bay Humane Society employee arrived with the feline cargo at about 3 a.m. this morning at the Society.  

Bredin was operating the Animal Rescue Express, which is a large truck and trailer based out of North Bay that can pick up and deliver distressed animals in a comfortable environment.  

See related: Animal Rescue Express based in North Bay is a friend of pets across Ontario

“This rescue, in particular, has an overabundance of animals that the animal rescues are just not able to find homes for...cats in particular on this transfer alone. So they reached out to us for our truck and trailer donated through Pet Valu and we are able to go up and pick up 70 cats and bring them all the way back to North Bay and then tag out to a new refreshed driver and send them south to find forever homes,” said Bredin.

The trailer only spent a few hours in North Bay and at 8:30 a.m. was on the road to its southern destination.  The cats will be transported to Ontario SPCA animal centres in Sudbury, Barrie, Midland and Stouffville, as well as the Georgian Triangle Humane Society in Collingwood.

The re-homing mission is part of the Ontario SPCA’s Support the North campaign, which is aimed at bringing awareness, attention, and action to the lack of animal wellness resources in Northern communities.

While it is a long ride for the northwestern Ontario cats, Bredin says it will be well worth it for the animals, once the journey is complete.   

“It is a long run but we made sure they all had food, blankets, litter a calming spray just to make the drive as easy as possible but it is certainly something, in the long run, worth it for them to end up finding a forever home,” she said.  

Bredin says the key point is that adoption rates are so much better in the south compared to the adoption rates in communities like North Bay and Dryden.  

“Some of these animals have been in the rescue for months, if not years, so getting them out of the northern Ontario facilities to the southern Ontario facilities in order to find them homes is exactly what they need.”