Sanctuary overwhelmed with 500 cats

BLANCHARD, Idaho – Nearly 500 cats fill the five mobile homes that make up the Voice of the Animals Camelot Sanctuary.

Many are sick – suffering from a potent strain of diphtheria that has plagued the sanctuary over the past few months – and between one and four animals dies every day, said sanctuary director Ed Criswell.

With only two staffers to care for the animals, Criswell said, the place is a mess. Cats roam freely through the mobile homes, and the smell is overwhelming.

“We’re doing rescues that nobody else is willing to do,” said Cheryl Perkins, the sanctuary’s chief executive officer. “We get the worst of the worst. And we know it’s not much, but we’re trying to give the cats a good home and to save animals.”

The sanctuary specializes in unadoptable animals, Criswell said, taking them from as far away as the Tri-Cities in Washington.

“We’re working with the shelter in Tri-Cities on taking their elderly cats. We have a leukemia-positive unit for cats diagnosed with leukemia. We know they’re not going to live forever, and we will put them down if they’re suffering, but quality of life is everything, not quantity,” Criswell said.

The sick animals are treated using holistic health products, he said, and the cats are fed with 2,500 pounds of donated dry cat food a month.

Roy Abeyta, manager of the Kootenai Humane Society shelter, said demand at the sanctuary has increased because of an escalating pet population and a lack of tax-funded shelters to take cats. The Kootenai shelter closed its doors to unwanted cats when it became a no-kill facility last year.

In the past three years that Criswell has been with the facility, he’s only seen three cats adopted. The nonprofit sanctuary charges a $35 adoption fee to cover the cost of spaying or neutering and vaccinations.

Cats are kept in different mobile homes depending on whether they are spayed or neutered, feral or sick.

“We’re not veterinarians, and we don’t pretend to be,” Perkins said. “We get a lot of help from outside sources when there are things we can’t handle ourselves.”

But the mortality rate has been rising, Criswell said.

“It seems that we’ve been losing a lot more cats than have been coming in,” he said. “We may take in anywhere from seven to 21 cats a week, but one to four may die a day. If we lose two cats a month, that may be acceptable. But what we are going through now is an epidemic.”

Perkins and Criswell say they need money to help clean up the sanctuary and to install a sprinkler system in the mobile homes in case of fires. Criswell said he is also trying to hire additional help, but he has had trouble finding someone dedicated to the animals at the sanctuary.

“They’re basically the only place in the area that will take a cat at any time,” Abeyta said. “We don’t send any animals to them, but we do refer people who don’t want their cats anymore because we don’t want to leave them without options. Without options, the problem is only going to get bigger.”