My daughter and I were out for a nice walk. The day was fantastic - not too cold and sunny. As we walked, we had fun discussions, sword fights with long weeds, and lots of laughter. We were only a few hundred yards from our house when we spotted the unobtrusive sack. Thinking I'd do the environment a favour, I went over to kick it free of the ice to take home and discard; however, upon closer observation, I realized that what was contained within the securely tied grocery bag was not garbage.
Here on the side of the road, just a couple minutes from town and a few hundred yards from my house, was a dead black and white cat with her pink collar still on and what appeared to be kittens, frozen stiff, all stuffed in a plastic grocery bag!
How she died, I have no idea - all I knew was that this joyful walk had ended. My daughter was greatly disturbed (She had lost her black and white cat to a hit and run a few months back when we first moved here.) and I was angry that some insensitive cad had exterminated and dumped these poor creatures as such.
To add to the experience of living on Johnston Dr., back in November as I was tying up my dog in the back yard, 5 kittens came racing over to me from seemingly out of nowhere. They had little fear of the dog as they gathered at my feet, perhaps because they were starving and didn't care or perhaps they came from a home with a dog. Regardless, I brought them inside. The next day, I went investigating to see where they might have been dropped off along the property. It was a good thing I did because the runt of the litter was mewing and shivering in the brush along the roadside. That night, I discovered the mother of the kittens had found her way into my garage. So, there I was with a new house and 7 cats!
As Brendan Wedley from the Peterborough Examiner reported about a month ago, Peterborough has a cat problem. To spay a female cat - starts at $230; to neuter a male - starts at $100, and they must have their first set of shots before the spaying or neutering, which is an added expense of $65 or more. The Humane Society is trying to raise $250,000 to start up a non-profit spay and neuter clinic which will offer these services at a lower cost.
I am imploring of the public to support this much needed service! I am also asking that if you have extra cats/kittens, DO NOT dump them on some unsuspecting poor soul's property! Nor the side of the road - dead or alive! Please contact the Humane Society (705-745-4722).
If you want to donate or learn more about the non-profit spay and neuter clinic, you can visit online at http://www.peterboroughhumanesociety.ca/ or contact them directly. The sooner this clinic is up and running, the sooner we can curtail this cat problem.
1 comment:
It's hard to believe that people do things as brutal as that, but I've seen it, too. It can be disheartening. It's also hard to believe that surgery is so expensive...it's not so much here in Texas, although it's worse at snob city vets. Perhaps that's the problem in Peterborough.
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