People often ask us where are all these unowned cats come from? Why is there what seems to be a feral cat population crisis? It's a simple answer yet also one steeped in layers of complexity. Unowned cats, feral or simply frightened, abandoned strays, are the end result of people not spaying or neutering their pet cat. The ever increasing numbers are a result of a community not having a program in place to humanely and effectively deal with the issue. Everyone adores a tiny kitten and it is love at first sight. The kitten is usually 'free', given away by people trying to find a home for litters that were produced by the neighbourhood stray or their own pet. We've all seen the signs up in front of houses, rural and suburban, 'free kittens' with their phone number scrawled along side.
The kitten goes home and all is well until he or she reaches the age of sexual maturity. This is the critical turning point: will the adoptive family be able to afford the hundreds of dollars to have the cat spayed/neutered, the requisite vaccines and boosters? Or, shocked by the price, will they decide to put it off? Perhaps they don't even realize the importance of the issue. The next thing you know the female 'slips' out of the house and gets pregnant. Or the male begins to spray noxious smelling urine inside the house and promptly gets kicked outside because of this behaviour.
The breeding is rampant and in a relatively short period of time a neighbourhood has free-roaming cats, a growing number of which are now unowned; the descendants of the pets that were never sterilized. Whatever the reason not to spay/neuter, whether not realizing the dire long term consequences or the inability to afford the surgery, it's a moot point: the constant cycle of reproduction, angry neighbours, sick and dying kittens and killing at shelters not embracing the No Kill equation continues.
Many people cast judgement on those that don't spay/neuter their cat. We say let's not waste anymore time on blame. Right now this is the reality. What can we do to address the situation and further our mission of humanely reducing the free-roaming cat population? Let's use our energy to focus on finding workable solutions so that everyone can enjoy the unconditional love of a healthy, sterilized pet, not just those whose income level can afford the alarmingly high cost of spay/neuter.
SNAP, PCFI's spay neuter assistance program, is an affordable solution to those in our community deemed to be in financial need. In conjunction with Port Cares, applicants are screened to determine eligibility. Once qualified the pet owner can purchase a voucher geared to income which entitles them to a spay or neuter and rabies vaccine.
Until such time as all communities have the programs in place to eliminate this problem, including access to high volume/low cost spay-neuter clinics like Newmarket, Windsor, Toronto and Barrie we will have to rely on the generosity of everyone that supports programs like SNAP.
Consider sponsoring a SNAP cat - it's the kindest thing you can do!
