Happy Days Sanctuary raises $11K in one day after fire kills 31 cats

A fire at Happy Days Sanctuary led to 31 cats dying last Sunday, leaving the main house unusable and forcing the sanctuary’s founder Ann Swinson and her volunteers to move survivors into the already crowded barn and outbuildings in Stevensville.

Animal rescues, fundraising clubs and donors from across Niagara are stepping up with money and supplies to keep the sanctuary operating and help it rebuild. A GoFundMe campaign launched Tuesday by Swinson’s son, Shane, surpassed $11,000 in a single day.

Fort Erie Fire and Emergency Services said the blaze began around 12:48 p.m. in the basement mechanical room of the home that doubled as Swinson’s residence and the sanctuary’s main cat space. The building is boarded up and under insurance investigation, so no one can live or work inside.

The largest early wave of support has come from local Kin clubs. Two members of the Ridgeway-Crystal Beach Kin Club already volunteered at Happy Days, so word of the fire reached president Dan Strugar quickly through past president Martina Post and volunteer Angela Pellegrino.

“There are so many people that own an animal, whether it is a cat or a dog or a bird, and those animals in your home are considered family,” said Strugar. “To see a loss like that is pretty impactful, and I think that hits home.”

Strugar posted an appeal on social media Sunday night listing immediate needs, including women’s large clothing for Swinson, cat food, Lysol, bleach and clumping litter. Within about 10 minutes, the Kinette Club of Fort Erie committed a $1,000 donation, which the Ridgeway-Crystal Beach Kin Club then matched at its Christmas social that same night.

Community involvement has spread beyond service clubs. Strugar told Fort Erie Radio that Fort Erie Community Preschool contacted him after seeing the appeal and wanted to help in a way that their youngest children could manage, by making homemade cat treats.

Pellegrino, who volunteers at Happy Days and recently joined the Ridgeway-Crystal Beach Kin Club, said messages and offers of help have come from across Niagara and beyond, including a veterinary clinic in Stevensville that collected cat food and litter. She said donations and pledges have also arrived from rescues in other municipalities and from a second rescue where she previously volunteered outside the region.

“Every non-profit at Christmas time is asking for donations, but when you have rescues that already have their hands full, and they are saying, ‘Our friends out in Fort Erie had a catastrophic issue, can you help them,’ that means they are asking people to give to us instead of themselves,” Pellegrino said.

The house, located on Burger Road, had been set aside for disabled cats and for animals being socialized in smaller rooms that felt like a home. Those spaces are gone, leaving Happy Days without its accessible areas, its washroom and its on-site laundry.

A dozen cats pulled from the building that day were taken to Beattie Pet Hospital in Stoney Creek, treated for smoke exposure and released on a 72-hour watch with medications. Local veterinarians have since checked on the animals, which are back at the sanctuary’s remaining building and are being monitored for any delayed effects.

Happy Days still has dozens of cats on site, along with ducks, geese and farm animals that rely on daily feeding and care. Volunteers are doubling up spaces, buying extra supplies out of pocket and bringing bags of laundry home because there is no working washer or dryer left on the property.

There was brief confusion at the scene of the fire involving the Fort Erie SPCA. Executive director Wendy Trombley said SPCA staff attended under police notification and were prepared to take cats into their clinic.

“We are there to help, we are not there to do anything else,” said Trombley.

Swinson told Fort Erie Radio she had already set a plan with her own team to assess each cat on site, then transport every animal needing treatment to veterinary care, and that she asked an SPCA staffer to stay back from the doorway while volunteers moved cats out with firefighters.

She described the scene as chaotic and said she believed stress and miscommunication played a role in how everyone interacted during the rescue. Swinson later thanked the wider rescue community, including the SPCA, for offering help.

Happy Days volunteers continue to shoulder much of the day-to-day burden. Pellegrino said teams are still feeding animals, cleaning litter boxes, administering eye drops and other medications and making sure cats from the fire get extra attention on each shift.

“The volunteers have been awesome,” said Pellegrino. “They are the backbones. They help make the sanctuary run.”

While bleach, Lysol, dish soap, dry cat food, clumping cat litter and puppy pads remain high on the list of needs, Swinson and Pellegrino are also directing people toward cash donations to cover mounting veterinary costs.

Pellegrino said the best way to donate is by direct e-transfer to info@hdsanctuary.org.

The Ridgeway-Crystal Beach Kin Club is also accepting monetary and physical donations to deliver to the sanctuary. Strugar said the club will keep working with Swinson and Pellegrino to adjust that list as conditions change.

Fundraising efforts are spreading across Niagara as well. A Niagara-on-the-Lake group, Community Initiative for Animal Rescue, plans a two-day bake sale this weekend at the Husky station on York Road, with proceeds going to Happy Days.

Swinson said she is still waiting on the insurance investigation before knowing whether the house can be repaired or must be demolished, and that she expects a clearer picture in the next few weeks. In the meantime, she said the focus remains on keeping every surviving animal safe and fed through the winter.

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