Edmonton Cat Fest

Announcing our 2024 Edmonton Cat Festival Donation Recipients!

We are excited to ameownce this year’s 10-year anniversary event on May 25, 2024 will donate 100% of funds raised to three rescues: Community Cats Edmonton, Enoch Animal Services, and the Greater Edmonton Animal Rescue Society.

As with each year, selecting our rescue donation recipients is always challenge because each rescue does such important and life-saving work for so many cats in need. We truly wish we could donate funds to all rescues who needed it!

This year our volunteer organizing committee has voted to split funds raised from the 2024 Edmonton Cat Festival (Day/Week and Month!) to Community Cats Edmonton, Enoch Animal Services, and the Greater Animal Rescue Society. 100% net proceeds from the festival and related Cat Fest Week/Month events will be donated to these rescues. We will also be donating a smaller portion of funds from a specific, smaller, Cat Fest Week fundraising event to the Alberta Sphynx Rescue. We have also invited interested rescues who were not selected as donation recipients to apply for a chance to have a vendor presence at the festival.

Below is more information about each rescue and how the Cat Festival donation will support the work they do to help cats in need!

Since 2014, the Edmonton International Cat Festival has donated $146,000 to local cat rescues! We are excited to see how much we can raise for these three rescues this year 2024 for our 10-year anniversary event.

Community Cats Edmonton

Community Cats Edmonton is a registered not for profit that has been operating since 2019. Community Cats primarily works with stray, feral and community cats in the greater Edmonton area, with a goal to stabilize feral cat populations through a targeted TNR (trap-neuter-return) approach where they spay/neuter feral cats and return them to their environment while offering supports to the kind citizens that care for them. The rescue intakes any kittens or cats that can be rehabilitated into pets and continue to support and monitor areas where they have stabilized a population. Hand in hand with the Trap Neuter Return offering is their Helping Hands Program. This program offers low income pet owners a subsidized rate to spay/neuter & microchip their pet. Community Cats Edmonton offers this from $50 a cat, but front 75% of this cost (average neuter is $150, average spay is $250). With these low income owners, they also often help with additional supports such as food and regular vet care should they require it and they are able to.

Funds donated from the Edmonton International Cat Festival would help Community Cats Edmonton run a massive TNR clinic to help stabilize a colony of over 75 cats found at a south Edmonton trailer park.

The donation would also help the many low income pet owners in this community. On a bi-weekly basis, Community Cats is transporting an SUV worth of wet and dry food to help support two citizens that help care for the stray and feral cats outdoors. We are also supporting several people within the community to help feed and vet their own indoor cats.

Enoch Animal Services

Enoch Animal Services is an animal shelter operating on Enoch Cree Nation just west of Edmonton, since 2019. Enoch Animal Services takes in lost/found cats, stray/abandoned cats, and owner surrenders and adopt animals out to furrever homes.

Enoch Animal Services is the only on-reserve animal shelter in Alberta.

Funds received from the Edmonton International Cat Festival will be used to help low income cat owners access spay/neuter for their cats (Enoch Animal Services runs a discounted program, but it is often still not affordable enough for residents). Donation funds would also support the shelter’s veterinary account as well as to purchase cat food for the cats they take in.

Greater Edmonton Animal Rescue Society (GEARS)

The Greater Edmonton Animal Rescue Society (GEARS) was formed in 2013 to help injured, unwanted, and homeless animals in the Edmonton Area. GEARS is a foster home-based rescue that relies on a network of foster homes, volunteers and donors to give companion animals a second chance. GEARS has successfully adopted out over 1,300 animals since being formed. About 55% of rescue animals in GEAR’s care are cats.

GEARS recently combined forces with the CAWS Companion Animal Welfare Society and took over their Guardian Angel Program which, is unique in animal rescue.

The Guardian Angel Program is a “port in the storm” providing temporary care solutions to people whose lives are in transition.

Whether they are fleeing domestic violence, entering addiction programs, seeking medical treatment, serving in our country’s military, or dealing with a natural disaster, the GAP is there to support their pets until they can do so once again.This program will provide pets that come into care with temporary housing, but also vaccines and spay/neuter if needed. The requests for the GAP are never ending, and cats seem to be in need of this program more than dogs.

Funds donated to GEARS from the Edmonton International Cat Festival will largely help GEARS support the Guardian Angel Program.

Visit all three of this year’s rescue recipients at the Edmonton International Cat Festival on Caturday, May 25, 2024, the 10-year Anniversary Celebration and Biggest In-Purrson Pawty since 2019 (before the pandemic). It’s going to be AMEOWZING!

We expected thousands of cat lovers to attend!

Stay tuned as well for more details about a smaller, separate fundraising event we’ll be hosting as part of Cat Fest Week to support Alberta Sphynx Rescue ! Alberta Sphynx Rescue provides a loving sanctuary for hairless, partially hairless, and specialty breed cats who in recent years due to the increasing popularity of unique and exotic breeds, has also led to a rise in irresponsible breeding practices resulting in a surge of cats being acquired by individuals ill-prepared to meet their specialized needs. Many of these cats end up in distressing situations, lacking the proper care and attention they require for optimal health and well-being. Alberta Sphynx Rescue provides a safe haven for these vulnerable cats, offering them a second chance at a happy and fulfilling life.