To the Editor,
Re: “Cats can be cute and cuddly … but also deadly,” Alberni Valley News, April 24, 2024
I wholeheartedly agree with the letter-writer that cat owners need to neuter or spay their pet at an early age; and if it must be allowed outdoors, to always keep it on a chest-harness [‘leash’] during walks.
If you won’t do it for the vulnerable wildlife potentially killed by your roaming cat, then please do it for your also-very-vulnerable cat.
I still find it ironic that, while outdoor cats are generally so destructive to their smaller prey, Metro Vancouver’s second most populous city has largely permitted its feral/homeless cat population to explode.
About six years ago I was informed by the Surrey Community Cat Coalition that Surrey had an estimated 36,000 feral/homeless cats, very many of which suffer severe malnourishment, debilitating injury and/or infection. Four years later I learned that, if anything, their “numbers would have increased, not decreased” since then.
Yet, other than that enabled by such cat-related charities as SCCC, little or nothing is available to help with the local non-profit trap/neuter/release (TNR) program, regardless of its documented success in reducing the needlessly great suffering.
The SCCC’s TNR program was the only charity to which I’ve ever donated, in no small part because of the plentiful human callousness towards the plight of those cats and countless others elsewhere. I was greatly saddened when told in February via email that the program is no longer operating.
Nevertheless, I donated $200 towards their general neuter/spay program, which also greatly needs public donations.
Frank Sterle Jr.,
White Rock, B.C.