Skip to content

Clawing away at MD's frisky feline problem

The Bonnyville and District SPCA and MD of Bonnyville are clawing away at their cat overpopulation problem, one spay and neuter clinic at a time.
SPN006
The Bonnyville and District SPCA, in partnership with the MD of Bonnyville, held their first spay and neuter program on Nov. 7.

The Bonnyville and District SPCA and MD of Bonnyville are clawing away at their cat overpopulation problem, one spay and neuter clinic at a time.

“We won’t see results immediately, it will take a few years doing this over and over again,” explained Judith Rodriguez, shelter manager for the Bonnyville and District SPCA.

Owner and veterinarian with the Bonnyville Vet Clinic, Greg Benoit, agreed that even though this is the program's second year running, it's unlikely they will see a difference in the cat population.

 Meagan Wirsta, registered veterinary technician with the Bonnyville Vet Clinic, prepares one of the cats for surgery. Meagan Wirsta, registered veterinary technician with the Bonnyville Vet Clinic, prepares one of the cats for surgery.

"Last year, we said going into it that there’s no sense of doing it just one time, you don’t get a benefit from that. It’s year-over-year that you actually are going to make a difference, so having it as a continued program is really the only way that makes sense,” he stated. “If it’s done right, it can have a big change over time."

The rural cat spay and neuter clinic was an initiative started last year by MD resident Silke Skinner. The municipality agreed to pay for the cost of the pilot, and decided to run the the program again in 2019, but this time through the SPCA.

It took numerous volunteers, SPCA employees, and vet clinic staff to get the job done on Thursday, Nov. 7, but by the end of the day-long clinic, over 40 barn and feral cats, which were brought in by pre-registered rural residents, were either spayed or neutered.

“I think it went amazing. This was our first time taking on such a venture. It’s such a critical thing to be doing in the community. I think it went very well, being the first time, now we can work on it and things we can do next time to make it run a bit smoother,” exclaimed Charlene Rask, vice-president of the local SPCA.

The SPCA is hoping to MD will approve another year of funding for the program, and feels that the responses they received from the community is a clear sign there's a need.

 Bonnyville Vet Clinic veterinarian Tammy Anderson focuses on her surgery. Bonnyville Vet Clinic veterinarian Tammy Anderson focuses on her surgery.

“We find that there’s a lot of people dumping cats out in our area, and it just becomes an issue with us, because most of them end up being hurt. I’ve taken several cats in and gotten them fixed on my own, and lots of them have been hurt, gotten infections, stuff like that. It’s a big chunk of money out of our pockets, so it’s great that the MD is letting us take part in this,” said MD resident Monique Lyall, who entered a cat into the program this year.

“We think it’s awesome. It gives us an opportunity to take advantage of it because otherwise it would be a lot of money out of our pocket,” she added.

Chris Lyall agreed, adding it's not only a problem in rural areas.

“It happens in town too, people just drive them into another neighbourhood and just drop them off."

Clinic volunteer and MD resident Pernille Rydberg said, "I know that cats are a big problem, they get out, get pregnant, and then multiply, so this is a good chance to get a little more control over it... This makes it affordable for a person and they can actually stop that cat from reproducing."

 This feline is taking a cat nap before it's turn on the surgical table. This feline is taking a cat nap before it's turn on the surgical table.

Unfortunately, the SPCA only had so many spots open this year.

"With the limited amount of funds and it being our first one as well, we were only able to do so many. It would be nice to see this happening every year, and I think if we had a few years of this under our belt, we could start getting all of this under control," Rask noted.

Their plan is to expand the program to Cold Lake in 2020, should funding allow it.

Rodriguez said the offer to participate was extended to the Cold Lake vet, however, due to the timing, they weren't able to join the cause.

“Hopefully next year the vet in Cold Lake can join us. She couldn’t this time. They were invited to join this project, but it was maybe too late to contact her, so she couldn’t join us. But, we’re looking forward to maybe working with her next year," detailed Rodriguez.

Cutting down on the number of feral cats has more benefits than just reducing their population.

According to Benoit, it also prevents the spread of disease.

“When we get an overpopulation of cats, there are a lot of problems that arise from that, there’ a lot more disease and fighting, but the disease cats get can spread to humans and it starts to become a health concern and there are risks that start to increase as well,” he detailed.

Rodriguez explained there were more males than females brought into the clinic simply because they're easier to catch.

 The van transporting cats from the SPCA to the vet clinic was full during their last haul. The van transporting cats from the SPCA to the vet clinic was full during their last haul.

Rask noted that by spaying the females especially, they're able to prevent any future litters from having babies of their own.

“No one is going to go out and catch a wild cat and pay $350 to get it fixed. This way, it’s an incentive for someone who sees a wild cat running around. If they know there’s a program like this, they can catch it and we can have it spayed or neutered, but we need programs like this to do that," she stressed.

If it weren't for the volunteers and cooperation between the MD, SPCA, and local vet clinic, this program wouldn't be possible, exclaimed Rodriguez.

Benoit agreed, “Volunteers are huge because we do have our staff available for this event, but we would have to decrease the number of cats we do in a day, and if we’re going to have our staff dedicate a day to this, we want to maximize and get the absolute most out of it, and our volunteers help us do that."

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks