This week Inge Sadler - who is the saviour for preemie kittens in Nova Scotia - she runs Pick of the Litter Rescue - posted a video of a kitten that was so heartbreaking it was almost too much to take.
A newborn kitten with maggots literally eating the anal region of the poor little soul - he didn't make it - just like his littermates - but hopefully his mother will with a lot of veterinary intervention now that she's under the care of a loving rescue - but for outdoor cats in Nova Scotia, this is not rare.
This suffering goes on everyday and Inge deals with this regularly although she almost never talks about it - she just goes about the business of saving the kittens and doing what she can.
We generally only hear about dog rescue stories and most of them are feel good stories and the puppies and dogs are very cute but the thing about cats and kittens is that there are so many more of them out there than there are dogs and puppies and people view them as much more disposable and throw them away - and there is still the mentality that cats should be able to go outside whenever they want.
There needs to be a paradigm shift to make cat ownership as important and dear as dog ownership - cats when treated right live longer than dogs generally and they definitely have as much personality as dogs as evidenced by the millions of cat videos on the internet - there must be some way that the suffering of these animals can be lessened.
There are some projects in Nova Scotia that is trying to work towards this - currently there is a huge TNR project underway - the HRM has given $50,000 to HRM Spay Day to spay and neuter cats which is awesome and they are doing their best to alter as many cats as they can - you can find out more about it on their website at https://spaydaynovascotia.wordpress.com/feral-tnr-project/
The Nova Scotia SPCA also has a couple of initiatives that they hope will try to lessen the suffering. They have 2 low cost spay/neuter clinics - one in Dartmouth and one in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality that you can apply to have your animal altered for a much reduced price - you can learn more about that service at http://spcans.ca/spca-vet-services/ - they have also bought a mobile spay/neuter van which initially will focus on TNR projects across the province - you can read more about it in a Metro news article - here
Hopefully things like this will put a dent in the cat problem in Nova Scotia and cats and kittens won't suffer like they are now and have in the past - we also have to make the government continue to step up like the Halifax Regional Municipality has with their $50,000 for the feral cats - we have been saying forever that dog owners are tax payers - well cat owners are also tax payers - let's have them represent that demographic as well.
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