Wednesday, August 18, 1993 - North Shore News - 39

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en season no fun for animal shelters

In the first year of life, 19 out of 20 Lower Mainland cats get dumped at the SPCA

FOR MOST people, sum- mer is the season to have fun. It is a time to swim and camp and travel.

By Judy Stone Contributing Writer

But for animal welfare workers, summer is kitten season, and it's no fun at all, It's both heart- breaking and infuriating.

As an animal welfare worker | get phone calls frorm people who have found abandoned litters of kittens in Janes, had kittens thrown on to their lawns in the middle of the night, or found kit- tens in dumpsters.

We get phone calls from people who are tired of their poor little female cat and her five kittens and threaten us with “getting rid of them” if we don’t take them. «

We get sick kittens, crawling with fleas, their tummics full of worms, the mother cats thin and weak after too many litters of kittens.

A Lower Mainland shelter reports almost fifty requests in 24 hours to kill family pets — most of them cats because the owners are going on holidays and can’t afford to board their animals. (One cynically wonders how these people can afford the holiday which is the pet’s death sentence.)

Thousands of kittens are born every year.

There are so many. excess cats that they’re treated like diposable -consumer goods, except that. they have no value.

In the first year of their lives, 19 out of 20 cats end up dumped at the SPCA, put down by reluc- tant vets, put into crowded private

_ Shelters, lost because they’ve never been tattooed or given a collar, or

‘ driven to strange neighborhoods and abandoned as soon as they become a little inconvenient.

What’s inconvenient? For a lot of cats, just being alive is enough to get them killed. They suffer for

having to be neutered, getting pregnant, getting sick, costing money or not being cute anymore.

But not to worry. There are plenty more cats to be had, thanks to all the people who think it’s cute to have a litter of kittens around the house, or that it’s ‘natural’? for a cat to have kit- tens (so’s cancer of the uterus and mammary glands).

Some say it’s a learning expe- rience for the children to witness the ‘‘miracle of birth.”’ If that’s true, then the educational experi- ence should be completed by tak- ing the kids to the local shelter and having them watch the not miraculous death of a half-dozen cats ata go.

These people obtusely claim to

be not part of the problem because their kittens all have homes to go to.

Every time a kitten: gets a home, it means there's one less possibic home for an adult cat. Fifteen thousand perfectly nice cats are put down every year in the Lower Mainland.

It’s a simple equation: one kit- ten born equals one adult cat killed. .

What can you do about this?

The North Shore Humane Society (NSHS) thinks there are enough caring people on the North Shore to support the idea of some sort of bylaw that would discourage the casual breeding of cats.

It would be nothing draconian,

Relax and enjoy a Starbucks coffee while listening to some of Vancouver’s finest perform in the company of beluga whales. Thursday & Friday evenings through September 3rd.

Concerts 5:30 - 7:30 pm

(All concerts free with paid admission te Aquarium)

_ August 19 & 20 — Penguin Ciassical String Trio August 26 & 27 — Harpist Karen O’Bray September 2 & 3 - Carmen Roberts Classical Trio

MAKE A NOTE OF IT AND JOIN THE FUN!

Proceeds from Starbucks sales will help get AquaVan rolling - the Aquarium’s province wide educational outreach program.

Vancouver |

A private, self-supporting, non-profit organizati

e ry

ion dedicated to conservation. Thank you for your support.

NEWS photo Mike Wakofieid

THE NORTH Shore Humane Society (NSHS) thinks there are enough caring people on the North Shore to support the idea ot some sort of bylaw that would discourage the casual breeding of cats.

but just something that says to the citizens of the North Shore that we don’t want any more animals neighborhood and that responsible

4G There are so many excess cats that they're treated like disposable consumer goods... 99

people don’t breed more cats when so many are killed and abandoned every year.

Because there are just as many kittens born in the alleys, woods, and industrial areas of the North Shore as there are into homes, groups such as ours can supply interested people with wild or abandoned pregnant cats to foster.

The NSHS believes that the way we treat animals, the earth, and each other is one and the same.

Our motto is Mahatma Gan- dhi’s dictum: ‘‘The greatness of a people can be measured by how well it treats its animals.’’

We're hoping that enough peo- ple feel the way we feel, and if you wish to join us, or lend us support, or find out what our other aims are, please phone us at $26-2180.

OF WOOD

OFFER ENDS SEPTEMBER 11/93