‘Canaries in the coal mine:’ Foster families eagerly receive Wynyard rescue cats

No sooner had a van-load of five crates filled with twenty of the cats rescued from Wynyard over the weekend arrived, volunteers had hustled the crates inside with hardly a peep from the furry occupants inside.

Within the hour, the cats had been matched to their descriptions based on appearance and injuries, assessed by volunteers and doled out to the eager cat-lovers lined up out the door of SCAT Street Cat Rescue’s location on Faithfull Avenue in Saskatoon.

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Alvin and Rachelle Nejal Mendoza arrived at SCAT Street Cat Rescue early on Wednesday night with empty cat carriers and left with full hearts.

Alvin and Rachelle Nejal Mendoza, SCAT street cat rescue fosters, prepare to leave the SCAT Street Cat Rescue office with their two foster cats from Wynyard on Jan. 7, 2026. (Libby Gray/650 CKOM)

The couple brought home two of the 41 cats rescued from the Wynyard home as fosters.

“We would want to have more cats, but financially … we couldn’t support them,” Rachelle explained.

The pair has one cat of their own, which they brought with them to Canada from the Philippines. Alvin said being able to foster other cats provides playmates for him.

For Ashlyn Weninger, president of SOS Prairie Rescue, it’s bittersweet to see the cats taken to their temporary foster homes. She’s glad for the love and care they’ll receive, but reflects that the situation they came from was one of the worst she’s ever seen.

Ashlyn Weninger with SOS Prairie Rescue unloads cats in kennels in the Mozart Sympawthy Animal Sanctuary van about to be unloaded and assessed before being taken to foster homes on Jan. 7, 2026. (Libby Gray/650 CKOM)

Weninger recalled crawling through garbage, clad in safety gear and crouching to avoid hitting the ceiling of the now-condemned Wynyard house, for four hours on Saturday as she and other volunteers worked to quickly and safely corral as many cats in the home as possible. Homes like these are both dangerous and difficult to move around in, Weninger said.

Becoming emotional as she described the state of the scene, she said the scene was “worse than you can imagine.

“Just so much decay and suffering,” she said.

For  SCAT Street Cat Rescue Treasurer, Charrone White, who has been coordinating foster homes and families for the past number of days, it’s exciting to see the final groups of felines find temporary homes. She had 11 foster homes arranged for the cats within the first day of learning about the situation.

“We’re happy that they’re all going to get a fresh start,” she said. “We are excited for them to come and get to their foster homes and really start to thrive in a new, safe and calm home environment.”

Ashlyn Weninger (left) and Charrone White (right) eagerly await the arrival of 20 cats rescued from Wynyard. (Libby Gray/650 CKOM)

Volunteer rescue efforts successful

It took less than 12 hours for two animal rescue organizations in Saskatoon to mobilize and be on the highway to Wynyard, after first receiving word from Mozart Sympawthy Animal Sanctuary that emergency help was needed to remove a significant number of cats believed to be in a home in Wynyard.

Weninger got the call on Friday night, around 9:30 p.m., while catching up, as usual, on “cat stuff.” She was on the road by 9 a.m. on Saturday.

Mozart Sympawthy Animal Sanctuary volunteers had already been working through the night.

“We’re dealing with this all the time,” Weninger said, noting that the number of animals expected in cases like these is nearly always exceeded.

One of the cats from Wynyard selected for fostering peeks through the side of a cat carrier on Jan. 7, 2026. (Libby Gray/650 CKOM)

After returning to Saskatoon on Saturday evening, the group assessed cats, coordinated veterinary care and arranged foster homes.

Three of the cats that night went home with White. Two ended up in the hospital overnight and the one left behind was quite nervous.

“Shy, shivering,” White described him as, and not moving much until the other cats came to her home. Since then, he’s come out of his shell, even purring within the first day for White.

“He’s been thriving since, with this group, we have really found that them staying together has helped them,” White said. “We’re trying to send them off in pairs to all their fosters.”

‘Canaries in the coal mine’

A combination of factors is contributing to situations like these in Saskatchewan, Weninger suggested. Systemic failures, people needing intervention but failing to receive assistance and a lack of mental health support and resources all play a role in these out-of-hand situations.

“I refer to the animals as like the canary in the coal mine in our communities. Where there’s animals suffering, there’s humans suffering just as bad,” Weninger said.

Charrone White coaxes some of the Wynyard cats with a treat after their arrival at SCAT Street Cat Rescue in Saskatoon on Jan. 7, 2026. (Libby Gray/650 CKOM)

She said more basic human services are needed throughout Saskatchewan to keep from these “emergent, tragic situations” reaching such dire points before receiving a response.

It’s a problem that first responders and animal protection workers have been facing for a long time, Weninger said. White agreed.

“It’s certainly not an isolated incident and there’s probably many more out there that nobody even is aware of,” White said, noting that this sort of situation doesn’t happen overnight.

“And while we focus on the animal side, it’s also extremely important to have those supports in place for the people involved as well.”

“We hope that both the humans and the animals have a better life as they move forward, and this is their chance for help and something better,” Weninger said.

Mozart Sympawthy Animal Sanctuary volunteers have continued to set traps and capture cats at the house since the weekend, leading to 41 cats as of Wednesday.

Five cats cuddle together after arriving at SCAT Street Cat Rescue in Saskatoon on Jan. 7, 2026, from Wynyard, Sask. (Libby Gray/650 CKOM)

Though it’s always hard to say goodbye when their foster cats do find their forever homes, Rachelle said the experience is rewarding.

“(I’m) excited that I could bring them to a more calm environment and (they) would learn to trust people, humans,” she shared.

“I hope that the impact of the story will continue to affect other people that are facing these hardships,” Weninger said. “Hopefully, from this situation, there comes some inspiration for some change for both the human and the animal.”