Well, not entirely; she has to share her ‘Secret Cat’ title!
Research has shown that 40% of cat owners are secretly feeding a cat they don’t own. Compassionate cat-lovers across the country are giving outdoor kitties extra help. Wild, stray or homeless; whatever you call them, they’re Community Cats.
Anyone who has followed this blog knows how I feel about the dreary, catch and kill campaigns we’ve seen in Australia in the past.
But rather than just bitch about it, we’ve created our own program which focuses on just how compassionate our community is when it comes to outdoor kitties.
We’ve sent this information to every vet in Australia. And so far it’s been a huge success, with councils also wanting to get in on the action, contacting us to request dozens more posters.
Looking forward to making 2010 the year of the cat!
I understand that there are a few upset people in high places because of this program.
So o.k., it headbutts a few different campaigns but who said we all have to agree with what they tell us is best anyway?
If they say it is against the law then I feel their laws need changing.
Looking after community cats could be so very much different if only they would help people do that. Instead of their restrictive initiatives why can’t they help the people they are targeting to control?
I remember the man I met in the supermarket who was feeding ‘about ten of them, someone has to look after them’. He didn’t look well off and I suspected he was on a pension or unemployed.
There was the man on welfare who lived up the road and who fed and looked after the cats (and kittens).
There were the people adjoining the factory grounds who had a lot of cats come in and fed them. They were on the pension and didn’t own a car. Neighbors reported them and the RSPCA came and took a lot away. No they didn’t desex the rest for them!
There was the girl we met at AWL who went to surrender some kittens for rehoming but found they would likely get put down so took them home. They had just moved into a house with the attendant costs and money was tight. She admitted she had no knowledge of female cats until she got this one. We tried to help her with advice. The shelter didn’t ask her to bring the mother in for desexing. The kittens were ten weeks old and she found later the mother had been pregnant again by that time. She rang me and told me in great distress that she now had eleven and her husband had given her an ultimatum about the pound.
There are many situations like these that the authorities and pounds could help instead of making up more laws.
People with no money, no car, no information, no assistance. How do we get an overpopulation? By doing what they do at present and what they’ve always done.