Photo courtesy CARMA
New Brunswick’s feral cat population is growing rapidly and to keep up with the demand, one organization is seeking more volunteers to help trap and neuter felines.
Cat Rescue Maritimes or CARMA says there are no solid numbers but 20 colonies of cats were recently identified in the Acadian Peninsula with more than 2,000 felines.
CARMA president Sue Knight says the organization is starting to get a lot of calls as it often does at this time of year.
“People have been feeding cats over the summer and now all of the sudden (they think) it’s going to freeze to death over the winter and they reach out to us. So suddenly we get a flood of phone calls,” she notes.
Knight says feral cats are a community problem which is why some cats are being trapped and neutered in what’s called a “return to field” approach where community members will feed and look out for them.
Since this is a community issue, she says everyone has to get on board to help solve it including municipalities and local SPCA’s.
During a recent cat conference in Moncton, Knight adds CARMA received some professional advice on how to focus all its resources on one key area instead of several and also how to better identify feline AIDS and leukemia in colonies.
For more information on CARMA, including how to volunteer, click HERE
