SPCA full: pet owners fingered

SPCA full: pet owners fingered

Posted By Fort McMurray Today

Posted 4 years ago

The local animal shelter is bursting at the seams, and its executive director says irresponsible pet owners are to blame.

?When owners try to give us their cats, we have to plead with them to hang onto them for a week, until another one gets adopted out of here,? said Jen Temple, head of the Fort McMurray Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

With 54 crowded into the ?cat room? alone, some are doubled up in cages, and others are overflowing into the rest of the shelter: The office normally used by bylaw control officers is now home to a mother cat and her eight kittens, two cages containing three cats take up precious room in the reception area, and cats picked up as strays bump up against cages for rabbits, gerbils, and guinea pigs in the ?critter room.?

?It?s been like this for four weeks,? Temple said during a tour of the shelter on Wednesday.

And the situation is no better for the 36 canine residents.

Although they?ve been re-opened to the public after a contagious and deadly virus shut them down at the end of July, both kennels are ?absolutely full,? Temple said.

?With so many new animals coming in, staff are stressed and over-worked,? she said -- not to mention the extra cost to feed, vaccinate, neuter or spade every new boarder.

Who?s to blame for the overcrowding?

Fort McMurray?s pet owners, Temple said -- and the list of offences is long.

For starters, don?t let your cats roam, put current identification around their necks, and make sure they?re spayed or neutered, Temple stresses. ?I was shocked at how many people called us this weekend, looking for their lost animals,? she said.

?In three hours, we got 10 calls, mostly for cats. Proper confinement is essential. Either keep your cats indoors, or make sure they?re in an enclosed cat run,? she said.

And the consequences of free-range cats that aren?t spayed or neutered boggles the mind: One female cat giving birth to five kittens in three litters a year can result in 420,000 cats over seven years, she said.

A female dog and its offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in six years.

But social attitudes in the community are also to blame, Temple says.

?So many people aren?t prepared to provide lifelong homes for the animals they buy or adopt. They think they?re disposable, like an old couch.?

In descending order, the top reasons why people hand over their pets to the SPCA are: not enough time to care for them, pets aren?t allowed where they?re living, someone in the household has allergies, and the owners are moving.

?Do your research,? Temple urges.

?Don?t move to town without checking if your apartment allows pets. Find out how much care your pet will need. Try medication for your allergies.

?And be prepared to care for the animal you buy or adopt, even if your child gets bored of it after six weeks. When you give it up when it starts creating problems, or you don?t feel like cleaning its cage anymore, what are you teaching your child? Certainly not responsibility or empathy.?

Rabbits, for example, need exercise and more than pellets to eat. Hamsters can live for four years; birds like parrots can live more than 60.

And if a cat is spraying urine, something may be wrong medically -- or it may simply need neutering.

?Take your animal to the vet, and if the problem is behavioural, that?s when you need to work with it. If you can?t change it, the SPCA can?t either, nor can the new owners. It?s inhumane when a cat gets passed from house to house to house.?

And if you?re moving, take your pet with you, Temple adds.

Besides landlords who ban pets from their buildings, what really needs to change are laws that define animals as property, Temple says.

?As long as they?re considered objects, they can be discarded on a whim. But we domesticated them; they depend on us. They?re living creatures that have feelings and needs, just like us.?

The SPCA is desperate for foster homes and volunteers, especially cat-brushers. Call 743-8997 for more information.

-- lliepins@fortmcmurraytoday.com