Shelter launching service cat program

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This article was published 24/03/2022 (1380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Westman animal shelter is attempting to train cats to provide therapeutic services to prospective owners.

Paws Crossed Animal Shelter, located west of Brandon off of Highway 1A, is starting a program to train some of the cats the organization cares for to become service animals for people with disabilities.

The shelter, which opened last September at the site of the former Spring Park Boarding Kennel, is currently under renovation but is taking care of a handful of cats, a rabbit, a chicken named Nugget and a pair of dogs.

Unlike service dogs, which frequently accompany their owners with them outside of the house, these cats are intended to be placed with people who have complex disabilities or medical needs like depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, that may make leaving their homes difficult.

According to Brittany Bergwall, the volunteer co-ordinator and service cat program lead at Paws Crossed, service cats are trained differently than their dog counterparts. Instead of teaching the cats brand-new skills, they select cats with desirable personality traits and reinforce them.

“We’re trying to reinforce that behaviour, shape it and then get it on cue,” Bergwall said.

Once trained, the cats will be able to offer comfort through techniques such as compression when their owner is experiencing panic attacks or stress, reminding them when to take medication and similar tasks.

The shelter was inspired to train service cats through MSAR, a Winnipeg-based organization that has taught service dogs for years and has recently experimented with felines.

Since the shelter is already participating in the SPCA’s Meet Your Match program, which involves assessing adoptable animals’ personalities to find them a forever home, it’s easy for them to find potential candidates.

While the cost and effort of training and owning a service cat is less than that of a service dog, Bergwall said, it still takes time and resources. That said, the shelter is looking for groups to sponsor cats so the felines can be provided at no cost to people in need.

Three cats — Bean, Buck and Otis — have been selected as the shelter’s community outreach team and will be the first trained under the program.

“What we’ve been working with them to do is to train them for general tasks, not necessarily service-related, so that we’re easily able to take them to places like seniors homes and things like that,” Bergwall said. “Knowing that they’re easily trainable, what we’re going to do once we have applications for them is start working with the person they’re matched with to train tasks specifically that will help those people.”

Bergwall described the three cats as food- and people-motivated and interested in learning and playing.

Rosser Medical Clinic in Brandon has provided the first sponsorship for the program, meaning Bean will find a home once fully trained, which Bergwall said could take up to a year.

Dr. Derry Decter of Rosser Medical Clinic told the Sun on Thursday that while he’s horribly allergic to cats, he’s happy to help out from a distance and receive progress updates and videos.

The shelter is hoping more individuals or organizations will reach out to sponsor service cats or even pay for a virtual foster, where people can sign up for a monthly contribution in exchange for getting progress updates on a cat they’re supporting.

Eventually, Bergwall is hoping the shelter could train up to five cats a year as long as they have enough sponsorship and volunteers.

People won’t be able to bring the cats they already own in for training.

Like other shelters, they’re also interested in receiving food, supplies like cat litter, and even construction items to help finish renovations. Since the facility doesn’t receive any government or grant funding, Bergwall said everything the shelter does is dependent on donations from the public.

To inquire about service cats or the possibility of sponsoring a cat, people can reach out by email to pawscrossed.mb@gmail.com or through the shelter’s Facebook page.

After the shelter posted about the service cat initiative on Facebook, Bergwall said they have been inundated with interest and asked people for patience if a response doesn’t come immediately.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

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