News
September 16th 2009
The rising number of feral cats
Roaming cats problem in inner city
Free at last! Pet cats and strays run the risk of getting caught in traps if they roam free. by Andrew McMonagle
The number of cats captured and/or surrendered to the humane society is rising.
In 2008, 5,870 cats were received by the humane society. In 2009, that number has risen by seven per cent and it’s only September.
Of those almost 6,000 cats – more than half – were strays. The rest were pets that come directly from homes, according to Bill McDonald, executive director of the Winnipeg Humane Society.
He said the reasons for a pet to be surrendered can range from allergies to distemper, but they also receive a small number of pets captured by cat traps distributed by animal services.
Animal services rents traps from April to October to people concerned about roaming cats, but the traps don’t differ between strays and pets.
City of Winnipeg by-laws prohibit cats from roaming free, whether they’re strays or not.
About seven per cent of the stray cats captured have owners they are returned to, McDonald said.
“The inner city is heaviest,” he said. “There are colonies all over the city, but it varies from place to place.”
This is common knowledge to Lynne Scott, founder of Craig Street Cats (CSC) in Wolseley. CSC is a privately run effort to keep the feral cat colonies in check.
Scott estimates that there are around 2,000 stray cats in Wolseley. She uses humane traps to capture the strays and turns them in to the Humane Society to get spayed and tattooed under their “Trap, neuter, release” program.
Scott said only a couple of cats they captured in the last year were pets, but it’s an issue where she’s seen improvement.
“People are becoming more aware that it’s safer to keep [their pets] indoors,” she said.
While strays are her concern, Scott doesn’t consider them to be all bad.
“They provide natural rodent control and also they keep new cats from moving in. They’re territorial,” she said.
“There are feral cats … and wandering pets in every neighbourhood, suburb, inner-city or not,” she said.
West Broadway resident Eva-Marie Stewart has two cats and is concerned about their safety if they get outdoors.
“There are tons of cats in the area,” she said. “I see the same ones all the time.”
Her two cats are kept indoors, but she would like to be able to let them outside. She said if she didn’t live in a downtown apartment, she would.
“Having cats indoors is difficult,” she said. “They always want to go outside and Momma [her calico cat] escapes sometimes.”
This article appeared in Volume 64, Number 03 of The Uniter, published September 17th 2009.
