Help for hundreds of stray cats on Isle Madame in Cape Breton may soon be on the way.
After CTV Atlantic aired a story Tuesday night about the animals’ plight, the Feral and Abandoned Cat Society of Sydney -- an hour-and-a-half away -- is making an unprecedented offer to travel outside of its normal jurisdiction to offer assistance.
“We will send a couple of volunteers, probably in two weeks or so, to assess the situation and trap as many cats as we can to help and get them spayed and neutered,” said Carmen Dunn of the Feral and Abandoned Cat Society.
Members of an animal rescue society on Isle Madame made a plea for help saying they are at their wit’s end with a problem that seems to be growing as quickly as the stray cat population.
The society in Sydney says they were in a similar position more than five years ago. Now, they are hoping to share the methods that worked for them.
“There was a time when we had a waiting list of about 1,800 cats at any given time,” Dunn said. “And that's been reduced to 600, so we know that we're catching up. And we know that we're maintaining and reducing the populations.”
Also offering a helping hand since our story aired Tuesday night is the mobile spay and neuter clinic at the Cape Breton SPCA.
“We are hoping to get up there in the very near future to help with that,” said Dawn McPhee, a nurse veterinarian at the SPCA. “We can spay-neuter the animals and get them released that day. And then, we can also help by taking some of those kittens and bringing them back to our shelter.”
The SPCA says in smaller communities like Isle Madame, it's often more difficult to find volunteers to trap the animals and bring them in.
“If there are volunteers that can help to bring those animals to us, we are absolutely willing to take them,” she said.
That’s welcome news to a community that's been trying to find solutions for some time now.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.
