RSPCA lowers cat adoption fee to encourage potential feline owners

RSPCA will be lowering its cat adoption fees in a bid to ease pressure on shelters who are currently overrun with the popular household pet.

As a part of the organisations ‘Catpacity’ adoption promotion, residents in Melton and Moorabool will only have to pay $29 if they wish to adopt an adult cat between now and Sunday April 24.

More than 700 cats currently call an RSPCA shelter home.

According to the organisation, the number of cats at RSPCA has increased by 65 per cent compared with April 2020.

RSPCA head of operations Victoria Tanya Drakopoulos, said online applications for pets have slowed this year, causing extra pressure for RSPCA teams to find homes for many of the animals in their care.

“We’re literally struggling to find pens for cats arriving at our animal care centres every day. Because we are an open shelter and would never turn a cat away, we really need to find homes for our adoption ready animals to create more space,” she said.

“We saw really pleasing rates of adoptions during lockdowns, but now that has slowed right down. As life gets back to normal, now is not the time to forget about vulnerable animals.

“We urge those thinking about getting a new cat to act now and choose to adopt from an RSPCA Victoria shelter.”