deadmau5 donates $30K to cover medical costs for 36 rescued cats at Oakville shelter
· Toronto Sun
See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source
Visit mchezo.co.za for more information.
Fans of hugely successful Toronto electronic music producer-deejay deadmau5 — real name Joel Zimmerman — know he’s a cat person, especially given the status of one of his own felines, Professor Meowingtons, who passed away in 2023 at age 16 after appearing in his music videos and on album covers.
So it should come as no surprise that Zimmerman, 45, has donated $30,000 to cover the medical care for 36 kittens and cats recently surrendered to the Humane Society of Oakville, Milton and Halton .
“It was (May 29), and the appeal (for $30,000 in funding) had been on social media for two days,” said Calla James, the humane society’s director of communications and community engagement.
“On that evening, our social media coordinator had actually messaged a number of us and said, ‘Oh, my gosh, somebody just commented on our social media post and all they wrote was, ‘I got you!’ And she saw the name and she saw that it was a verified account, clicked on it, realized who it was and proceeded to text all of us. So that night all of us were in total shock. A lot of happiness and hoping that this truly was the actual deadmau5 reaching out to us because we thought, ‘Man, that would be so cool.’ And it, in fact, was him. And we continued the conversation from there. And we were incredibly blown away by his generosity.”
The shelter first got 27 kittens and cats, ranging in age from three months to three years, from the same home in Milton on May 28 and then another nine from the same location the following week.
“A family reached out to us for support,” James said. “They had the cats in their care and they weren’t able to care for all of them anymore.”
One cat required immediate medical attention
One of the cats required emergency surgery for pyometra, a life-threatening uterine infection requiring emergency surgery, which was performed “pretty quickly,” James said.
The other 35, meanwhile, are in good health in the shelter’s care.
“They’re good, they’re lovely, and our staff has fallen in love with them for sure,” James said. “And so they’ve been receiving care now. So seeing a veterinarian for wellness exams, parasite treatment, for their vaccines, and then they’ll all receive spay/neuter surgery as well, and then if there’s other veterinarian care that’s required, speciality care, they would receive that too.”
The shelter now has 101 cats and kittens.
In addition to the $30,000 donation, deadmau5, who has 2.9 million followers on Instagram alone, has also invited his fans to help name the cats and kitten before they’re ready for adoption.
“He’s put a contest up there, through a Patreon page, where you go to that page, and you can help name the cats that came into our care,” James said. “So that creates huge engagement. So just the shear reach that he has also helped us with has been incredible. So not just the donation but the amount of attention he’s brought to our organization and to the work we do, has been incredible.”
As a non-profit organization, the humane society needs all the help it can get as it does not receive government funding but relies on public donations to provide its animal care.
Those wanting to make a donation can do so in person at the animal centre at 445 Cornwall Rd. in Oakville, or at hsomh.ca/27cats .