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antipodi
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Joined: 25 Jan 2006
Posts: 1148
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Sat Jun 10, 2006 1:02 pm
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Hope through Prevention
The Animal Aid in Coldstream, Victoria ..Australia may be forced to euthanase hundreds of cats and kittens this summer. This unfortunate statistic could be easily avoided if only the community would embrace early age desexing and ownership accountability.
Between the months of October and February, a cardboard box arriving at the shelter can only mean one thing, kittens. Who would think that an innocuous item such as a cardboard box could be responsible for so much anxiety in the staff at the Animal Aid? In the cooler months of the year it could perhaps contain some donated food or perhaps some bedding. But as the weather warms up it is a completely different story.
"You begin to dread the sight of them; you cringe as you open the lid. You know that you will be faced with the heartbreaking sight of yet another set of terrified, little eyes peering out at you, blinking in the sudden flood of sunlight." Lynn Bell cattery manager said regretfully. Day after day, they pour in the door. "You see them being removed from the boots of cars in the parking lot, and sometimes find them at the front door when you arrive at work in the morning." Lynn Bell explains that exposure and heat stress can often cause fatalities. "Some of them make it, and some of them don’t. If they are accompanied by their mother, they have a greater chance of survival, but the majority of litters arrive unaccompanied, too young and frail to survive without her."
Lynn goes on to say that with all the best intentions when someone finds a litter of kittens, assuming that they are abandoned, they take them to the shelter, not realizing that the mother cat is never far away. By removing the kittens, you bring the mother back into season and she can be pregnant again within six weeks. You are now in the same position as before, you still have a stray cat problem, and in fact you have accelerated her breeding capacity.
The Animal Aid want to get the message across that simply bringing the kittens in achieves very little in the big picture. If they can obtain the mother cats as well, we can desex them and essentially halt that colonies potential to get out of control. The community needs to understand that it is no longer acceptable to say "it's not my cat; I just put food out for it" it simply doesn't wash. If you do have this attitude then unfortunately you are part of the problem. The onus is on you, to either take responsibility for that animal and make it your own or hand it over to the appropriate authority, such as your welfare shelter or local council.
_________________
Antipodi
May one day man and Animals live together in harmony and peace
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