Animal rescue group hopes new Surrey council will help with feral cat ‘crisis’
Posted October 31, 2014 12:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS1130) – The feral cat problem in Surrey is a crisis, according to one animal rescue group, which also says the city isn’t taking it seriously.
Marlene Dunbrack wth the Surrey chapter of the Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Assocation (VOKRA) says they applied for a community grant to help low-income people spay and neuter their pets, but they were turned down.
“It’s interesting because there are other communities in British Columbia, as well as across Canada, that do provide vouchers to get their animals spayed and neutered,” she tells us.
“The City of Langley, as well as the Township of Langley, provide 240 vouchers per year. The District of Maple Ridge has a similar program and they provided $105,000 over three years to help community cats. We have the City of Windsor that has a cat voucher program that allows for 1,000 local cats to be spayed and neutered for free every year. That’s just some of the ones that I know about, so we would really like to see Surrey step up and help out in that regard.”
Dunbrack is hoping the new mayor and council will be more willing to help. “We have a new city council being elected on November 15th, and we’ll definitely be bringing that up with them.”
VOKRA figures there are 20,000 feral cats in the city. They’re forced to survive outside, the pregnancy cycle never ends, and they’re a nuisance for residents.
