Bakersfield SPCA needs your help to remodel its decades-old cattery

Posted: Mar 29, 2023 / 08:48 PM PDT

Updated: Mar 29, 2023 / 08:59 PM PDT

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET)– It’s time to Unleash Your Love and help the Bakersfield SPCA remodel its cattery. It’s decades old and is in dire need.

The Bakersfield SPCA is looking for generous people who are willing to donate to help them update their cattery.

The cages in the cattery will be a thing of the past if the community can help them meet their goal.

The goal is to reach $30,000 by the end of Friday. Right now the Bakersfield SPCA cattery feels like a jail and the cats don’t have much room to roam.

“When you walk into the cattery it feels almost institutionalized,” Kristen White the communications specialist for the Bakersfield SPCA said. “You’ve got fences on both sides of you.. You’re walking through stacked lined-up kennels. It’s all these cats in cages basically.”

The money will be used to take down the cages and build a free-roaming room for the cats. It’ll be decked out with wall platforms, high perches, and a variety of cat toys. People will be able to interact with the cats much easier with these new updates.

“What we’re hoping to do is update it,” White said. “Refresh it. Make it a Cat Café type of thing.”

Plus, new comfortable seats will be added for those adopters who want the cats to decide if they’re going home with them.

“We have people that are true cat people,” White said. “They want to come in here and they want to let the cat pick them. Which is what cats do a lot of the time. When they’re sitting in these smaller spaces it’s harder to connect and what we want is seating in here for humans.”

Donations will be collected throughout the week. And what’s better yet is if your donation is among the first 10,000 dollars it will be doubled. So you better come in quick to make sure your buck goes even further.

“An anonymous donor came in and they agreed to match up to 10,000 dollars in donations,” White said.