I was at the shelter later than usual this morning. There seemed to be an overabundance of "things to do before I leave the house" tasks.
The shelter was incredibly empty. I should've counted, but there must've been...maybe 20 cats there. I rescued a very sweet Tortoiseshell female with her 3 two week old nursing kittens. Apparently, she had accidently suffocated one of the kittens right before I had arrived. It was nice to rescue a Mom and kittens, something that seems so easily organized when there's no "kitten season desperation factor" involved.
The SPCA (who shares a building with Animal Control) next door had already been into the shelter yesterday and "stickered" the young cats and kittens. (meaning that nobody else can take them) Apparently, they still get cherry pick the cats and kittens before rescues. I must say that although I'm happy when ANY cat is rescued out of Animal Control, I'm completely baffled that AC would allow the SPCA priority over rescues when these people only show up for cats once or twice A YEAR when things get slow over there.
But the rescues - like mine - are there year around through the good, bad and ugly - Distemper, URI, etc. We're without money, scrambling and working FOR FREE. I would love to be able to go into the shelter and know a cute little litter of highly adoptable healthy orange kittens could be offered to a rescue (ANY rescue) BEFORE the paid staff of the SPCA who only show up during the good times.
So this summer when the SPCA takes a litter of highly adoptable kittens from their distraught nursing Mom and leaves the Mom to die, who do you think will be there to help her? RIGHT - the cat rescues!!!
I'm a lot more ticked about this than I'm writing here. I'll end the rant...but I fume about this every year.
On a happier note, I have a lovely family coming over to meet my foster kitten "Barbie". I'll miss her. :)
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22 comments:
It always makes me soooo sad to think about all the mother cats out there that get left behind for euthanisia. I know that adult cats are much harder to find homes for than kittens, and that tough decisions must be made. Kudos to you for saving those kittens AND their mother!
You rant away! You have more than earned a good rant every now and again. I feel the same way about those poor mama cats left behind. It is literally heartbreaking.
You and your rescue are amazing...never forget that.
How do you do this without your heart jumping right out of your chest? I could barely read this without completely falling to bits. I wish so much I could help you and help all these sweet, innocent angels. This IS so incredibly heartbreaking. GIANT hugs and prayers, every moment!!!
You do such amazing work and I am so glad that you are there to take the mums that SPCA leaves behind.
Did the black mom whose kittens were hand picked by the SPCA a week or so ago, ever make it out??
Caroline: She did!
-B
Yay for the Mom, we needed that update.
Why are there still 2 cats on the "urgent/euth" list if there is room??
FYI Readers, there is an elderly gray declawed gentleman on the list too.
Beth, wondering what has changed at the shelter since last year when there were 4 sometimes 5 pages of kitties listed and now there is just over a page ? Do they have less space available ..or what ? I'm sure it is NOT that there are less kitties being surrendered !
Sorry Beth I also meant to say I'm thrilled to hear that the little black girl DID make it out. Poor wee soul, having all her babies taken away..I could NOT believe this when I heard it ..shocking ...but I'm sure we haven't heard the half of all the goings on down there !
So not fair! SPCAs everywhere just keep doing rotten things. Niagara USA SPCA is being picketed today - they were caught doing heart stab kills and putting dogs and cats down for overcrowding. Still haunted by the Toronto SPCA finding a trapped cat in their building who had starved to death. Reading your blog has been an education. Thank you!
Never forget that you are doing some of the most important work
in the world - saving death row cats AND finding them homes!
SPCA saves adoptable cats from Death Row - all well and good.
Who saves cats from Death Row,
AND gets them adopted and into loving homes. You do - you rock!
Will you ever rescue from that rural shelter again when times like this are slow at HAC?
Ecochica: I've been thinking about that shelter quite a bit. I heard they were closing down.
Rivi: SPCA does rescue AND adoptions too. :)
What IS happening at the shelter ? We're down to a single short page ...I hope those precious kitties missing from the list this morning were rescued and not eliminated ! There has to be more room available than this ????????
Re: Anonymous post trapped kitty in ceiling, it was actually at the Toronto Humane Society a few years ago not the SPCA. The SPCA were the overfunded ones that murdered 100 animals with treatable ringworm in Newmarket!
I think the answer is truly nonprofit/ non salaried rescue groups.
The Toronto Humane Society is now operating with a completely new board, and are very involved with assisting feral and stray cats, including having a spay/neuter clinic every two weeks for registered colonies, and shelter building workshops for outdoor cats. The old THS was a nightmare -- they were shut down after an investigation by the OSPCA. The new THS is working very hard to be a functional entity that actually supports animals -- and seems to be succeeding.
Low cost accessible spay/neuter clinics, registered charity cat rescue groups, established shelters and animal control all need to work together, and to be on the same page, to be the most effective. There is obviously still a ton of catching up to do, and some educating of all parties involved.
I long for this utopian scenario: if you want to adopt a cat, you would have to put your name on a waiting list, after being thoroughly screened and approved by a committee. It might take months or years, because the shelters were completely empty, no one discarded their cats, not spaying or neutering your pet was regarded as negatively as being a racist is now, and that everyone valued their cat the way that new electronics or designer goods are cherished now...
The thought of this Utopian scenario intrigues me but I have to say I would be heartbroken ( being one of those crazy cat ladies who treasures my kitties MORE than electronics or designer goods...they never hug me back ) if I lost one of my kitties to cancer or some serious disease and I couldn't replace her/him with another quickly to ease my aching heart and that very empty space in my life.
Also IF we DID manage to spay and neuter every cat would that not render CATS extinct ? I DO agree with you in a lot of aspects, but I also have to look at the other side of this scenario. What we really need to do is educate the public to understand that animals are very precious and we need to start respecting them. If that is not possible we need to have very severe punishments put in place for harming an animal.In reality I often think the animals would take better care of us than we do them ! Just the opinion of a crazy cat lady !
I think the reality of my utopian vision is more 1950's sci-fi than possible reality -- don't get too worked up !
That's a slippery slope you are on there. I love my cats, and I love the cats that have let me help them, too. I don't know what the statistics are, exactly, but I heard Toronto has approximately 100,000 homeless or feral cats at the moment. If extreme efforts were made to spay/neuter them all -- and had a 95% success rate -- it would take approximately 10 - 15 years for complete attrition to happen. The 5% that were left intact could easily repopulate within several generations.
More utopian fantasy: what if catsitting was so desirable that people would put their name on a waiting list and compete to pay for the privilege ? As opposed to say euthanizing a healthy family pet because they are going away on vacation and couldn't find someone to look after their cat for free ? The thing about "crazy"cat ladies is that we are not crazy at all -- we are kind and reciprocate the love we are given.
I just have to clear up a bit of misinformation...the SPCA attached to HAS rescues cats FAR more often than once or twice a year. I'm not sure where you got that info? Very often, the kennel cards on the cats up for adoption at the SPCA even identify that the cat came from Animal Control.
FYI for those of you wondering what happened to the little black black kitty who had her babies taken away (Just Mom) now named Noomi, she was rescued and was actually just adopted on Sunday!
I"m taking a break on the night shift to read this. I don't get the SPCA next door. They come in twice /year to handpick adoptable kittens and leave the mommies to risk death. I sincerely hope the SPCA takes pains to ensure the kittens are spayed/neutered when they leave, I.e, bringing in documented proof. Otherwise, somewhere down the road, one of those adopted kittens may get pregnant, find herself at HAC, and the whole scenario will repeat itself. I just hope the adopters are informed - many of us have fostered a nursing mom who's a kitten herself.
Bless you for your work, Beth.
Anonymous: Would love the stats on how many cats the SPCA has rescued last year from HAS. I would love to be wrong about this. The public seems to think that when they dump a cat at HAS, that the SPCA will pick up this cat. The surrender forms even use the word "ADOPTION" in them. How ridiculous.
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