In late December 2004, Pacific Animal Foundation received a desperate call from a young student living in West Vancouver. She had noticed a cat roaming in her neighbourhood but she could never catch it to see if it had any identification. She began to leave food on her back porch whenever she saw the cat in her yard in an attempt to befriend it to see if it had a home. The cat was wary and would only eat the food when the young woman went inside the house. Very soon the cat turned up with kittens in tow so the young woman began to suspect the cat was feral and didn't have a home. It was freezing cold and snowing so she fixed up a kennel with warm blankets on her porch and noticed that the cat and kittens would huddle inside late at night.

The young woman wanted help for the cats but the BC SPCA has no Feral Cat Assistance program to trap/neuter/release feral cats. Despite strong evidence that a trap/neuter/release or "TNR" program is the most effective and caring way to deal with constantly reproducing feral cats, our SPCA has not implemented a program in BC. The San Francisco SPCA started such a program in 1993 and it has been a wonderful success to help feral cats and compassionately reduce the city's cat overpopulation - http://www.sfspca.org/feral/index.shtml

Pacific Animal Foundation ("PAF") is a small registered animal charity, based in North Vancouver, and run entirely by unpaid volunteers. We immediately gave advice to the young woman and made veterinary arrangements. Two 18 week old feral kittens were captured and fixed before the end of the first week in January. They were also vaccinated, tattooed, dewormed and defleaed and PAF paid all the bills from our limited funds. The young cats were re-released in the area where they were captured and the young woman agreed to leave food on her porch whenever she saw the cats.

Three weeks later PAF received a call that the body of a cat, with a tattoo matching one of the young cats, was brought into the West Vancouver SPCA. When PAF telephoned the WV SPCA, we were told that the cat had been hit and killed by a car and they wanted to know the name of the owner of the cat. PAF advised the WV SPCA that the young cat was feral and had no owner but that our group had recently helped a young woman get the cat fixed and paid the bills. As the telephone conversation was about to end, the SPCA woman asked PAF for the name and address of the young woman. They wanted to send her a bill for the "disposal" of the cat's body. PAF refused to give the WV SPCA her name and again reiterated that the cat was feral and not owned by anyone.

Five days later PAF received an invoice in the mail from the West Vancouver SPCA for the $20. disposal fee for the body.

When will the BC SPCA develop a responsible policy for dealing with feral cats and cooperate with those groups that are now being forced to fill in and do its work?

Lana Simon, Director
Pacific Animal Foundation