Your Victoria Times Colonist
Kittens rescued from nasty death
Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A cardboard box beside the railway tracks in Langford narrowly escaped being squished by the E&N dayliner. And the occupants were lucky a second time. If the box had not been discovered by a passerby, two kittens were still headed for a painful death.

Pamela Saddler, vice-president of Greater Victoria Animals' Crusaders, said she was horrified when she was called Saturday to pick up the kittens which had been left in a closed box beside the railway tracks on Station Avenue.

"They are at my house now and they're up for adoption. They are safe for now, thank God," said Saddler, who is fostering 16 cats and kittens, many of which were dumped by their owners.

The Station Avenue kittens were found by a teenage girl who heard them crying.

Her mother, Angelina Fenske, said the kittens were shivering and meowing.

"It was a sick thing for someone to leave them there," her daughter said.

Saddler is angry that someone could condemn kittens to a long, painful death, but is not surprised.

Last month, eight kittens in two batches, were thrown into a dumpster next to the A&W Restaurant on Millstream Road.

"The A&W people heard their cries and found the kittens. Some were in the lard. They had lard up their nose and in their eyes, but they all survived" Saddler said.

It was a narrow escape because the garbage pickup was later that day, she said.

Animals' Crusaders has 70 kittens in foster care, with every foster home maxed out. Saddler cannot understand why people do not use the group's spay and neuter program instead of letting their cats breed indiscriminately.

"I have been doing this for 10 years and every year it seems to be worse and worse," she said.

At Victoria SPCA, there are 140 kittens in the shelter and in foster care and about 150 cats looking for homes.

Many kittens at the shelter are developing upper respiratory infections because they are stressed. The SPCA also can't take any more adult cats because all the cages are full, said manager Penny Stone.

Every day, during kitten season, litters are dumped at the SPCA, but, at least that is better than abandoning them, she said.

"Don't leave them out there to starve, it's a horrendous death," she said.

The SPCA's Ginger Program offers a spay/neuter service for a donation.

"But, people just don't seem to get it. Now you can (spay/neuter) when they are eight weeks old. There's really no excuse," Stone said.

Anyone wanting their kids to witness the miracle of birth is welcome to foster one of the pregnant cats, she said.

Stone is confident that, eventually, the SPCA will find homes for all the kittens.

"But, I always feel sorry for the older cats during kitten season, because everyone who walks in wants a cute little kitten," she said.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007