Online video sheds light on feral cat problem in Medicine Hat

Tooth sees first hand the very sad reality of cats that are not being spayed or neutered.

“People have seen my videos on social media. Some of the kittens had just been born between my morning feed and my afternoon feed and their mother was nowhere to be found so it was very disheartening,” says Tooth

“I don’t know if they survived but I don’t think their chances of survival were very great,” adds Tooth.

Tooth says she also knows of at least five kittens who sadly drown in Wednesday’s heavy rain.

“Which is very sad as well.” explains Tooth.

She says events like this could be prevented if feral cats could be humanely trapped, spayed, neutered and then released.

A trap and release program is supported by APARC’s General Manager Steven Wolf. Right now APARC is at high-capacity and no longer accepting animal drop-offs from the public.

“It would definitely help intake of animals, it would definitely lower our vetting fees,” says Wolf.

But on Monday night council did not approve a trap and release program that is part of the city’s Responsible Animal Ownership bylaw, instead deciding to send it back for further study.

Nicole Frey who founded the non-profit Animal Food Bank Foundation says the feral cat problem will continue to grow without action from the city.

So she started an online petition to put pressure on city councilors.

“This does have to be a sense of urgency because there are a lot of community organizations and community members who are not tasked to make sure those cats are relatively okay, ” says Frey.

Frey says a trap and release program would not only control the population of feral cats, it would provide them a better quality of life.

“Some of them are better suited at this point to be feral or barn cats or things like that so I don’t want people to get confused with animal welfare issues where it’s mean to trap a cat and then release it into the environment that it knows because that’s not the intent,” explains Frey.

According to the American National Institute of Health a female cat in North America can have between one and three liters every year with between one and five kittens per liter.

That means one feral female cat could have up to 15 feral kittens every year.

“Unless we get in there and spay and neuter, they’re going to keep creating and there’s going to be an ever growing need for what we are doing right now,” says Tooth.

Tooth says since she shared her video dozens of people have reached out to her offering donations and food.

Until local humane groups are able to control the growing feral cat population, they say they will continue to provide feral cats in the city whatever food and shelter they can.

by Brendan Miller

Online video sheds light on feral cat problem in Medicine Hat

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