We had been feeding a lovely feral cat. She was pregnant. Her ear was permanently crumpled down due to a severe mite infestation. The pain and discomfort she must have endured. She was pregnant. The SPCA said they could not take her because they were full, there was a feline leukemia epidemic throughout their facility and the whole of north Dartmouth. They also said they did not have the funding or resources to deal with the situation. We offered to pay for neutering her and the kittens but they still could not take her in on time and we lost track of her and the kittens until one day just recently we found her chasing one of kittens through a neighbour’s yard. Our neighbours watched in horror as she was attacked and killed by two large dogs that could not be called off by their owner—really.
We have several homeless cats that we are currently feeding daily and are appalled at the neglect of this problem by the Halifax Region having just moved here from a city, as most every other city in Canada, that has a good program to keep this deplorable and shameful problem in check. There are many kind and generous people running around exhaustively trying to help but this neglect needs to be prioritized by the city. We found a cat frozen solid last winter. These lovely creatures endure unbearable winters, starvation and horrible deaths daily and they don’t deserve this insolence. Remember Nova Scotia, the measure of a society can be judged on how it treats its animals and a big thanks to Stan as the world is now watching. —Animal Lover
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In the name of science
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2012.
I agree, this is a serious problem. Sadly there may be nothing more HRM can do, there is only so much money dedicated to these shelters. Donations mean alot, but they are rare. The problem is the pet owners, what starts out cute and small gets big and has an appetite. Also the vet bills. Not everyone should have an animal, if they do, it should be registered and spayed/neutered. We currently have two cats, one we rescued last winter. Just looking at him made us sad, he’s an amazing cat that needed a home. After 4 or 5 winter months without a home he had several health problems, also needed to be neutered. We spent just over $900 on the vet bills, $900 because some worthless loser couldn’t handle or realize the responsibility involved. Look at Kijiji, the site is full of wonderfull animals that the owners have some excuse to not take care of. These are the future homeless animals.
the cat problem pretty well solves itself over time. due dogs, cars, and other means. the real problem halisux has, is the feral panhandlers, and of course the worst one, the feral politition. if we can eliminate those last, we will indeed have a utopian society.
there are lot of people trying to do something about this problem. you moved from a city that seems to have better success, any suggestions?
I have a suggestion, humanely kill them.
Now before you start yer flamin’ hate filled response ….not that I don’t enjoy reading those wonderful venom spewing comments on what a fucking monster I must obviously be.
Look at it the way I do, would you rather see them suffer ? I see it as the better of the choices available & would rather it be done humanely than seeing them dragging their badly injured or diseased body through the back yard. Ever seen a cat or dog hit by a car ? Spine broken them twitching & trying to get away or screaming in pain ? There is no money available to build more shelters, or increase the ones we have. Taxes are already to high & I’d rather people be looked after before a stray cat or even a dog & I love dogs.
So anyway… if an animals continued suffering in yer opinion trumps a humane death, please flame away .
Nature’s rough. Feral cats are not house pets, they are no different than a raccoon, a skunk, or a rabbit.
With patients and love some feral cats can be house broken.
They are living creatures like you and I with feelings…”If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?”.Or cat “Do we not shit in your shoes?”
I have to disagree with Harper, feral cats are neither pets or wildlife, their just caught on the periphery of human settlement. Unlike most wildlife, they need some human assistance to survive anywhere near the average life span of a house cat.
I really have no suggestions to combat the problem. They are not very adoptable and can spread disease to other felines.
People have to neuter their pets, plain and simple.
troondon I don’t completely agree with the “people have to neuter pets”
There are many responsible pet owners who have not neutered their animals. I don’t see that as the problem.
IRRESPONSIBLE pet owners, there is the real problem.
I see nothing wrong with neutering yer pet, if that is what you wish to do. I just don’t believe it is a ‘have to do’ for every pet.
I’m almost sure LIFESUCKS has been reincarnated as BLOWME.
Can we give this man a trophy for worst poster of the year yet?
The problem wont “solve itself”. However Feral Cat programs in other cities have proven to be cheap and effective. If only we could implement one….
you’re just figuring this out, slowcoaster^^
Well maybe this “new” council will solve the problem, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
In Russia, the stray cats are taken in by the museum Hermitage to protect the artwork from mice/rats. http://www.russianlife.com/blog/hermitage-…
Junior, taking in 70 cats out of tens of thousands does not imply that Russia deals with the stray problem this way. That is an isolated incident that I do agree with, however, even here the dockyards have many stray cats that they spay/neuter and feed to control the rat population. That doesn’t mean that in Canada this is how we deal with the situation. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea and fully support it, its just not the end all solution your post implies.
Is not all fun and games for Russian katz:
http://www.kulfoto.com/cat-pictures/27892/…
That is absolutely horrific. My friends mother just recently took in a very pregnant stray so if any of you want a kitten let me know 🙂
Stop bitching and pull out your cheque book.
lowcoaster, I thought that BLOW ME sounds an awful lot like Mr. Meaty, myself.
On a more serious note, I picked up a little stray male tonight, trying to get into a Lawton’s on Duffus. Poor little guy was surely someone’s pet. He’s been out a few weeks, bones just starting to show. He’s only about 5-6 moths old. He was so hungry. And he is sick. After a bleeding heart crying fit, I took the poor little neglectareeno into my car, and dropped him off at home.
I REALLY shouldn’t have taken him, I could be evicted, but I couldn’t leave him. He seems so grateful, and exhausted. I really hate people right now.
i agree with mr meaty, pull out your chequebook. e transfer money. use paypal. cash in your pennies and donate. the spca survives on donations. so do all the rescues. if you have no money at all, but do have time, donate that. or old blankets. paper towels. bleach.
it’s great you offered to pay for her neutering, but the shelter still didn’t have the physical space to take her.
an option in this situation would be to trap the cat yourself and arrange a vet visit. you would have to keep her til the kittens were born and weaned before spaying. and that is just what the spca could not do. you have to get down there and see how crowded it gets. if they start stacking cages in hallways and bathrooms, they can be shut down for unsanitary conditions. they are stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place.
and after pulling out your chequebook, email/write call the politicians. keep hammering at them. start petitions. sign petitions.
I’ve been in Halifax for 18 years.
Reading the comments and how people recently have been talking about an explosion in stray cats in Halifax, one would think we’re over-run by cats.
I don’t think we don’t have an issue. Obviously if the SPCA is constantly full, we have an issue. Mainly because people don’t spay or neuter their cats.
On the other hand, I’m always out and about and I don’t witness the problem everyone’s talking about.
I live in Clayton park and have lived in Clayton park and Fairview for the last 18 years and I don’t remember seeing many stray cats. Probably a couple.
We even owned a store on Dutch Village road and I was there 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, for close to 2 years and I only saw one cat get hit by a car.
Based on reading a lot of the comments, is uncommon to have an outdoor pet in HRM?
If I had a pet cat and I let it out to do it’s business and roam a bit, is it considered stray in HRM? Is there an unwritten rule or something they people go by in HRM that everyone should be aware of?
there are 27 cats written up and pictured on the SPCA website today for adoption. There would probably be an equal number waiting to be evaluated, vetted before being available. kittens are a ‘job lot’ . they don’t get individual write-ups. just too many. there are several private cat rescue outfits in the area, they would be full as well. a good place to check the status of cats out there is Kijiji. people giving away cats and kittens because they tried to dump them at the spca and been told ‘no room’. so they have to try to adopt them out themselves. so you’d be looking at anywhere from 5 to 10, maybe 20 times as many cats at this moment. then there are the ferals. colonies of them in different areas. they do try to keep out of sight.
breeding time for cats is couple times a year, so they come in waves.
when i worked at a northern shelter years ago, the city size was 12,000, trading area of 25,000. one month we took in 147 cats and kittens. we could do that, because we KILLED them. how many cats and kittens do you think a city the size of halifax would generate?
Someone I know catches feral cats then takes then to the vets for the whole “work up” including “fixing” then she finds a foster family or a “nice” family that loves cats.She goes out of her way to check out the potential family before she gives up the cat.Usually depending upon how “wild” the cat is, the cat will go to a Foster family in hopes of taming the cat then a perminant home. There are a small band of these kind people around this city.Using their own money to take care of a cat someone just “dumped”like garbage on the streets. God love these folk.
I took the little fellow to the vet that I found yesterday. He had feline leukemia, and feline hiv. The vet said he was very sick and very contagious. We had to euthanize him. Poor little soul. Cost me $92, but at least I know he won’t suffer a long, drawn out death. 🙁
So sorry Kontee, but bless you for caring.
Well done Kontee. I know it doesn’t make it any easier but you did the right thing. My sympathies.
Kontee, sometimes it’s all you can do, and as you know, it’s a kindness. a peaceful death.
I agree with all your kind comments, than you. Sometimes doing the right think does not feel very nice. I’m ok with it…I have to look at it like I released him from suffering, I guess; what other choice do I have…