People are dumping undesirable cats and kittens like by no means earlier than within the Parksville Qualicum Beach space.
A major soar was famous over the previous few years by CatSpan, a non-profit organization dedicated to spaying, neutering, fostering and adopting feral and semi-feral cats.
Active since 1990, the group used to handle a big regional inhabitants of actually feral cats, in keeping with Kathy Robinson of CatSpan, however as that inhabitants dwindled over the many years, the main focus has shifted to not too long ago dumped cats, of which there are a lot of.
“The vast majority of them are either dumped or somebody’s moved away and left them. It’s just been awful since COVID,” Robinson mentioned. “Until a couple of years ago we were handling about 90 cats a year and now we’re doing 250.”
The group was hopeful final yr that the problem would enhance with the pandemic within the rearview mirror, however 2023 was simply as dangerous as 2022 – and 2024 isn’t shaping up a lot better.
“This year, it’s March and we’re already up to 50,” Robinson mentioned. “So we’re heading for a couple hundred this year and we haven’t even got to kitten season yet.”
Rural roads are the most typical place for cats to be dumped, she added, significantly in Errington, Coombs and Whiskey Creek.
“We get some from in town, but generally what happens is we get someone who doesn’t want a cat and they’ll just take it and dump it on a country road and then it shows up at an acreage,” Robinson mentioned.
A typical name to CatSpan includes a stray cat displaying up at a home and the house owners feed it, not considering a lot of it — till it exhibits up with a litter of kittens.
“And then they start to get a bit panicky and they call us.”
In a case like this, CatSpan will spay the mom cat (individuals can then have the cat again if they need) and the kittens are adopted.
The veterinary and meals prices are enormous, Robinson mentioned. By the time a cat has been vaccinated, de-wormed, had a flea remedy and been spayed and neutered, the invoice is roughly $400.
“Our vet bill for the last year has been approximately $130,000,” she mentioned. “And then we’ve spent another $20-odd [thousand] in food.”
The organization receives donated meals, however Robinson mentioned the prime quality kitten meals they purchase is pricey, roughly $100 for a case of 24 cans, which doesn’t final lengthy, particularly throughout “kitten season”.
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CatSpan is registered charity and is at all times on the lookout for money donations, in addition to volunteers for fundraising occasions and individuals who can host a semi-feral cat on an acreage or farm. More details about donations and different methods to assist is available at
Robinson fosters many animals in her personal home, and assesses if they’re tame sufficient to be adopted or extra appropriate for the barn cat program.
People will dump cats for numerous causes, Robinson mentioned. People will transfer and go away a cat behind, or an proprietor dies and the cats winds up by itself. Or somebody could merely determine they don’t need a pet anymore and drop it off within the forest.
Recently CatSpan volunteers picked up seven kittens and cats (together with a number of who had been pregnant) from one growth.
“They didn’t want them anymore,” Robinson mentioned. “They were selling them, and then of course because nobody wanted them they couldn’t sell them anymore, so they surrendered them to us.”
She added the BC SPCA doesn’t have the workers capability to socialize cats which have change into semi-feral residing on their very own for some time.
“We have a deal with them. They’ll take the tame ones, we’ll take the feral ones,” she added.
Without the continued work by volunteers to spay, neuter and undertake, the problem can spin uncontrolled rapidly as a result of the animals multiply surprisingly quick, Robinsons mentioned.
“If we quit, in five years the place would be overrun with feral cats again,” she mentioned. “They’d be living outside and they’d be feral, and then in a couple of generations they’d be truly feral.”
