CatVideoFest raises awareness about shelter cats at the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society

On Thursday, Mar. 14, 2019, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., the Princess Twin Cinema, in collaboration with the Kitchener Humane Society, held their latest “CatVideoFest.”

An event where cat and animal lovers alike could watch compilations of submitted cat videos and other funny videos, as well as more educational pieces.

This is the third event that the two groups have done — hosting similar festivals in 2015 and 2016. 10 per cent of the proceeds during the event goes to the Humane Society.

“It worked a little bit backwards.When we did it in 2015, and then we did it again in 2016, the two events generated a lot of interest in what we do here, especially in spaying and neutering unowned cats,” said Cristina Lopes, events coordinator for the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society.

“From there, it started to become more of a chance for us to also showcase the importance and awareness that is the cat population. It gives us a chance to share what we do.”

Beyond this event, their latest partnership with PetSmart Charities of Canada has provided them with a $35,000 grant for spaying and neutering unowned cats.

The motivation behind these events came from their low-cost spay and neuter clinic for unowned cats, which began in Fall 2014 and ended in July of last year. During this period, they were able to perform over 4000 spays and neuters.

“Seeing the change that made got us thinking about how many unowned cats are really in the Waterloo Region, and approximately [at this point] we’re looking at over 100,000. Any bit helps to make that difference,” Lopes said.

Events such as these give greater awareness to the types of services that organizations like the Humane Society offer, are an outlet for finding new clientele and provides further education for animal lovers.

“It lets us share awareness to people who have the same views that we do — we’re all cat lovers, we’re all animal lovers and we want what’s best for the pets — but do they know what other services we provide in order to help those cats and help those other animals?” Lopes said.

Beyond this event, their latest partnership with PetSmart Charities of Canada has provided them with a $35,000 grant for spaying and neutering unowned cats.

This will be an exceptional resource in their ongoing effort to control the growing colony cat populations in the area.