Residents at the Sunrise Valley Mobile Park are frustrated after repeated requests to the SPCA and the City animal control for help fell on deaf ears.
The park is located one block away from the North Cariboo District SPCA and residents say the trailer park is used frequently as a dumping ground for unwanted cats. But, despite calls to the SPCA and animal control, nothing has been done to solve the problem.
Park resident Lesley Kerr has seen firsthand the number of stray cats that end up settling in her backyard. Because of her love of felines, she doesn't have the heart to let them go without food and water, so she sets trays out for them every morning.
"There was one that showed up here about four months ago and has since had two litters," said Kerr.
"The first was born under one of the trailers and the kittens didn't survive. Now she has another litter of kittens that are living on the property but they are feral and won't let anyone get near them.
The manager of the trailer park has placed several phone calls to the SPCA and has been told the city only has five cat traps that can be rented and that perhaps the manager should consider purchasing her own trap.
The Citizen contacted both the City Animal Control and the local SPCA and received conflicting
information.
"In this case, it's the SPCA and the SPCA has their own traps," said Guy Gusdal, bylaw services. "If it's an animal welfare issue, it's the SPCA. That's their jurisdiction. [Because] the cats are sounding feral, it's even more their responsibility.
Gusdal explained the mandate of animal control is protecting people from animals. Because the number of cat attacks is low, feline issues aren't a high priority for them.
When speaking to the SPCA's branch manager, Angela McLaren, she explained it was a courtesy the SPCA extends by dealing with the stray cats and that she has the authority to authorize an extra trap for these types of situations.
"This is a legitimate stray situation, so all I have to do is pick up the phone and say to animal control, 'we have an issue in a trailer park, please can you issue another trap' and they are more than willing to do that," said McLaren. "In this kind of case, I can just authorize a trap. Which I have done already. My staff has already organized a trap for her," McLaren told the Citizen on Dec. 30.
"The problem with animal control is that they aren't mandated for cats, " she said. "The City originally would hand out 15 traps at a time to people but people were trapping their neighbour's cats. So I put my foot down and said that I'd only
release traps to legitimate people.
Kerr phoned the SPCA to organize the collection of the trap and received a different answer.
An SPCA employee, who didn't want her name used, told The Citizen, "We don't have cat traps here. The way the process works is [Kerr's] name is put on the list of people waiting for cat traps and that is what I did, so now [Kerr] has to wait for the city to have one available... I did everything in my power when I found out about the situation yesterday.
The SPCA admit feral cat colonies are becoming a problem, especially in trailer parks in the area. The SPCA mandate is to euthanize feral cats because they aren't considered adoptable.
"Feral cats get euthanized. We don't have a catch-and-release
program," said McLaren.
