Approximately one month ago, employees at Vancouver Drydock Ltd, a large business located in the City of North Vancouver at Pier 94, noticed a number of adult feral cats and kittens on their premises and wanted to help them.
A call was made by Drydock office staff to the West Vancouver SPCA who referred them to Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue (VOKRA), a small private rescue group located in Kitsilano. VOKRA, in turn, referred the call back to the North Shore and Pacific Animal Foundation (PAF). Within hours of the call from VOKRA, PAF volunteers attended at the business, assessed the situation, and arranged for trapping to begin. It has been left to the small, private, non-profit rescue groups to step in to help concerned citizens deal with feral cats and the staggering numbers of feral kittens born each year.
Despite overwhelming evidence supporting the benefits of a Trap/Neuter/Return program to humanely reduce and manage the feral cat overpopulation, the BC SPCA still does not have a province-wide Feral Cat Assistance Program. At best, the SPCA Hospital in Vancouver has held a token (or “symbolic”) “one day Free Feral Clinic” in 2004 and 2005. Nineteen cats were fixed on that day in 2004 and a similar small number in 2005. Please see the following websites for responsible information regarding existing successful programs in other jurisdictions:
http://www.alleycat.org/pdf/TNRnotTNA.pdf
http://www.alleycat.org/visitor.html#2
Because the Vancouver Drydock business location is within the City of North Vancouver boundary and the animal contract in the City is held by the BC SPCA, PAF contacted the SPCA and asked it to pay for a spay/neuter and basic vaccination for any feral cats trapped at that location. The SPCA agreed and the first adult feral cat was trapped last Sunday night (June 26) and transported to the SPCA Hospital Monday morning. The SPCA also provided the tattoo and Advantage free of charge. No teeth work was required. (PAF had volunteered to pay for dental work). The PAF volunteers took care of the trapping and transporting; the SPCA paid for the medical care. Three feral kittens, approximately 12 weeks old (2 female; 1 male), have also been trapped at the location and are in the care of PAF. These kittens will need socialization before being adopted, and the PAF volunteers are providing a foster home for them.
The benefits to the Drydock business and the cats have been significant. Two female feral kittens that have been captured would have been producing their own litters of kittens within 6 months, and the feral mother has been caught and fixed so she will no longer be contributing more kittens to the overpopulation. PAF hopes to trap the remaining cats shortly. The employees of the Company are extremely pleased to have helped the cats and have been very co-operative in the whole process. It has been a win-win situation for these feral cats.
PAF will be contacting the SPCA again should we receive reports of feral cats in either the City of North Vancouver or the Municipality of West Vancouver.
Lana Simon, Director
Pacific Animal Foundation