The North Toronto Cat Rescue is a feline promised land. Hundreds of salvaged strays saunter throughout the Markham bungalow, coexisting harmoniously in a cage-less setting.

For six years the shelter has served as an animal welfare wonder-house, where street cats are trapped, neutered and contained rather than released.

But the furry paradise is slated to be lost to a large-scale condo development, and the city doesn’t see saving its 240 cats as a priority.

“If we can’t find another place, these cats will be euthanized,” said Donna Cox, head of the rescue. “It’s frightening. Very frightening.”

The house was granted to Cox in 2008 after she begged Markham councillors for a shelter to operate her volunteer-run cat rescue out of.

Kylemore Communities, one of several developers councillors canvassed, agreed to spare an abandoned property on Langstaff Rd., near Hwy. 407 — a zone it planned to later develop.

Kylemore will soon erect condos in the area as part of the Langstaff Gateway, a live-work project that will house and employ 47,000 people. That means the rescue will need to be bulldozed.

Cox and Councillor Valerie Burke plan to meet with Markham’s chief administrative officer this week to see if the city will find another dwelling for the cats. So far, talks with the city have gone nowhere.

“We’ve hit a wall on this one,” said Burke. “I don’t think a cat rescue shelter is a high priority to our council.”

Don Taylor, Markham’s manager of executive operations, said the city won’t grant Cox a property to relocate her felines.

“It’s ultimately their responsibility to find another place,” he said. “There are no city cat shelters. It’s just not in the mix of city services.”

Kylemore president Patrick O’Hanlon said the bungalow was only meant to serve as a temporary refuge until the city found a permanent location for the cats.

“We could have rented (the house) out for a big return every month, but we’ve forgone that since 2008 for this cat shelter,” he said. The spade for O’Hanlon’s development goes into the dirt next year, but he added he might not demolish the house for a few years.

Markham currently contracts out its animal services to the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. At a June 26 general committee meeting, councillors discussed the possibility of Markham establishing its own animal shelter, as recommended in a report by the city’s animal care committee. Instead, the city decided to renew its contract with the OSPCA.

“They figured it would be more cost-effective, although we have huge problems with the OSPCA,” said Burke.

In 2011, the organization euthanized 405 of the 733 animals it took into its Newmarket shelter, which Markham uses. Cox worries that if she can’t find another home for her cats, they will share a similar fate.

“These animals deserve respect,” said Cox, who has rescued around 1,700 strays over the past 20 years. “To have them taken away and destroyed would be quite inhumane.”

Taylor notes there is a lack of available land in the rapidly developing municipality for a property accommodating the needs of the rescue.

“Admittedly, there aren’t too many options for them to do what they want to do, especially in the southern part of the city, where all the cats are,” he said.

A firm believer that cats “do not belong outdoors,” Cox opposes trap-neuter-return programs. She manages to domesticate all the felines she rescues.

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“Freezing and starving to death outside is not a life,” says Cox. “When you take them in, they hiss at first. But after spending enough time with them, they start to brush against your legs.”

She now fears street cats in Markham will face a grim future if she can’t find a “forever home” for them.

“It would just be shameful.”

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