Sask. animal shelter raising money with 'Neuter Your Ex' Valentine's Day campaign

A Saskatchewan animal shelter that's raising money for spaying and neutering cats is offering some furry vengeance to irate exes.

The Humboldt & District SPCA is attempting to raise money with a Valentine's Day campaign called "Neuter Your Ex".

Shared on the organization's Facebook page, the post says for every $50 donation the non-profit will name a cat after the ex-partner of the person's choosing.

The ad says "it's the ultimate revenge" and will help "heal your broken heart".

The Humboldt & District SPCA has been promoting its 'Neuter your Ex' campaign on its Facebook page. (Humboldt SPCA/Facebook)

"The Humboldt & District SPCA will name a cat after your ex and that's right … neuter or spay them! Because some things just shouldn't breed," says the post on the Humboldt SPCA's Facebook page.

The post garnered more than 600 likes within its first 24 hours.

Cats have been running rampant in Humboldt according to the non-profit's president Janice Weber.

"Oh my gosh, there is a lot of cats, strays, ones that come [from] in truck engines that fall out, there's an awful lot of stray cats that roam around town," said Weber.

"I'm actually feeding some at my house right now."

Weber said the idea came from social media posts about shelters in the United States that were running similar campaigns.

The Humboldt location is overrun with cats right now, according to Weber.

The Humboldt & District SPCA's Janice Weber says the idea for 'Neuter your Ex' came from the U.S., where other animal shelters were running similar campaigns. (CBC News)

She says it can help expedite the adoption process when the animals are already fixed.

There are about 36 cats at the centre right now, with 19 needing to be spayed or neutered.

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Weber said the funds from the campaign will help pay for those procedures — which on the high end can run upwards of $200 for a female cat.

Expert says campaign could be a winner

Katie Lafreniere, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta business school, has a research interest specializing in looking at swear words and shocking and taboo advertisements in marketing.

"This type of advertising, shock advertising, they're deliberately trying to break the rules and so the point of it is to to cross that line, of course you don't want to go fully fledged well over," said Lafreniere.

"It's causing that surprise that is enabling people to want to spend more time actually paying attention to the ad and the message that they're trying to get across."

While the slogan dances on the line, it doesn't go too far according to Lafreniere.

"I think they would have been successful, whether they said spay your ex or neuter your ex. I think that neutering is a more common term," she said.