Image courtesy of APARC

By Chris Brown

Desperate need for food, milk replacement

APARC needs help after 20 stray cats brought in

Jun 9, 2021 | 4:27 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – An already stressful kitten season at Medicine Hat’s APARC was made even more stressful this week with the arrival of 20 stray cats.

Now the animal shelter is in desperate need of supplies.

APARC general manager Kaylyn Major says a group of people collected three moms and 17 kittens and brought them all to APARC at once.

“They have mixed together moms and babies, they’re all various ages and sizes and weights,” she says. “So we can’t really figure out who is who so we put them all into foster until they can get bigger.”

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Major says they’ve all seen medical attention and they’re doing well now but some babies were “really malnourished.”

She says stray cats are a problem they are trying to address in the city and region and urges people not to collect cats.

“We’re constantly trying to get people to spay and neuter their pets so we can cut down on the population that’s going on here in the surrounding areas as well,” she says. “We don’t recommend collecting these animals in groups or hoarding them or trapping them and then bringing them in all at once. There is the concern of diseases that can spread to each other or that cats are sick that way. We need to do this in a more controlled environment and it is something that APARC is working towards doing.”

Every animal that comes in is advertised by APARC in hopes they can be reunited with their owner, but Major says there’s little chance of that happening in this case. Based on their body weight and behaviour she believes all 20 are strays and haven’t been cared for properly,

APARC will keep them under its care until they are old enough to be vetted, spayed/neutered, microchipped and vaccinated and then will adopt them out to forever homes.

Because of the influx of cats APARC is in desperate need of wet kitten food, dry kitten food and KMR milk replacement they are using to feed the kittens without moms.

“It’s something that we’re going through on a regular basis,” she says. “We did have a high intake of kittens and cats before and now that we’ve got these 20 new cats we are in great need of these items donated.”

APARC buys Performatrin pet food but will gratefully accept any brand. They will also take cash donations.

For more information on how you can help call APARC at 403-487-5671 or find them on Facebook.