Two weeks after pleading with authorities for help, Lesley Kerr, a resident of Sunrise Valley Mobile Park, still feeds the family of stray cats who have taken up residence under her trailer.
"I'm an animal lover and I couldn't stand by and watch them suffer," said Kerr, who is still waiting for a trap to become available from animal control.
She is also hesitating over giving any cats she eventually traps to the North Cariboo District SPCA because they will be euthanized.
SPCA branch manager, Angela McLaren told the Citizen once a cat is wild there is no way to domesticate them and therefore they aren't considered adoptable.
"We don't have a catch-and-release program," said McLaren.
Donna Liberson, a former SPCA member and now a member of the Animal Rights Coalition of Canada, doesn't agree with that approach to the management of wild cats.
"Feral cats are what they are and they play a part in the ecosystem. It would be like trying to domesticate a squirrel," said Liberson.
The method of curbing the population of feral cats living in Prince George, said Liberson, is to get as many of them spayed and neutered as possible.
However, that costs money.
To spay a cat costs $139 and to neuter one costs is $99.
Once a year, usually in the spring, the SPCA puts aside one day where residents can bring in wild cats and have them fixed and vaccinated at no cost.
But that doesn't necessarily help Kerr and the cats that have taken up residence at the trailer.
If [the SPCA] isn't going to spend any money to solve the problem then they become part of the problem," said Liberson.
Kelly Chase operates an alternate animal rescue shelter in the area, Operation Street Cat Society. She says that while feral cats are wild, they can be tamed.
"They have had no experience with humans," said Chase. "All [the cats] know is to fear humans. A lot of people that I deal with want the cats gone because they think they'll be attacked and that's not true.
"A feral cat would prefer to never see a human's face unless they are being given food and water."
She has tamed several feral cats and admits that it requires a lot of patience and usually the cats only bond with the person that has tamed them and they remain frightened of other people.
Chase agrees with Liberson in that offering spay and neuter clinics more often during the year would eventually cause the wild cat colonies to stabilize.
"I love feral cats, simply because they don't have anyone else," said Liberson. "Cats are very disposable in Prince George. Often domesticated cats end up in feral colonies."
