Some people do not understand the purpose and urgency of having their pet sterilised.
Kitten season is not here yet but we are already getting calls for pregnant females about to give birth. Of course our purpose is to let them have their babies inside so they can be sociabilized, the mother fixed and put back outside if she is feral. So far this principle is understood from our team.
I heard over the week-end of a lady who wants to open a shelter in St-Eustache and yet she gives away non sterilised cats to anyone who wants them. Of course a huge male with hormones in the ceiling will be put outside by the adoptants, will probably get lost in a new environment and impregnate more stray females. That is the usual circle.
Since I have a number for that lady, I will be trying this week to reason with her. Specially when it comes to sending non sterile cats to the country to "live their cat lives" in the nature.
Well, I've got news for her, nature does not work that way. Nature is cruel to cats in general and specially to non sterile ones. The males get injured in fights and suffer weeks on end from absesses and open wounds. Females get pregnant three times a year with an average of 4 kittens per litter. They must find food for them, a secure place to have them and nurse them, which in this human world is not easy. Not all humans like cats.
I compare the cat overpopulation to a spinning wheel going faster and faster and the kittens being thrown up in the air landing god knows where. We have to stop that wheel and the only way is through massive sterilisation.
The second fast way to help stray cats is, of course, TNR. How I wish I could meet the lady who invented that system. It works perfectly and the feral cats can, at least, have a little bit of peace and quiet both from searching for food and shelter and eluding humans.
Unfortunately, our elected officials who think they know everything are not even aware of TNR. We tried to explain it to them but it does not enter their little head that we want to protect feral cats. They don't understand either that we need those feral cats to protect our environment from rodents.
So, I guess our work is cut out for ourselves for this week and the summer to come.
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