Communities struggle to find solutions to the problems caused by people dropping off unwanted animals in rural areas
Talk to most rural residents about abandoned animals found on or near their properties and you’ll get an earful about pot-bellied pigs, unwanted roosters, wandering domestic rabbits, even a fish — complete with tank — dropped on the side of the road.
Cats, however, top the list of abandoned animals.
“Cats have always been a very consistent concern,” says Rachel Finseth, executive director of Cats Home Foundation, a charity working to home and care for rural cats.
“Especially since the pandemic, people were adopting. Then they went back to work.”
Finseth and her husband, Nathan, farm sheep and alpacas near Water Valley, Alta.
The couple met when both were working at the Calgary Humane Society. Finseth has long wanted to step in to fill the rescue gap that existed for cats, especially cats in rural areas.
“Every day, it’s a different day,” she said. “The state of overpopulation of cats in Alberta…. I would go so far as to say it’s a crisis. I get at least three calls a day.”
R. J. Bailot, executive director and co-founder of the Canadian Animal Task Force, a non-profit organization that partners with communities to help manage companion animal populations, agreed with Finseth’s assessment but cautions that the reasons animals may be abandoned are complicated.
“I remember years ago — when I got started — I used to think the worst of people who relinquished an animal,” he said. “Now I know it’s not so black and white. I don’t know what the answer is. I just know it’s not so simple.
“There’s a level of desperation.… It’s a human problem, not a cat problem.”
While rural residents who find abandoned animals may want to point the finger at city dwellers off-loading inconvenient animals, Bailot said his experience shows otherwise. In fact, when CATF canvasses a community signing up participants for spay-and-neuter clinics, most animals belong to residents.
Dan Kobe, communications manager for the Alberta SPCA, noted that rehoming animals is challenging in the province with many shelters and rescue organizations at or above capacity. For cats in particular, there are few resources for residents who may have found a stray.
“Most municipalities in Alberta have bylaws to manage stray dogs,” he wrote in response to an email query.
“Municipalities are also responsible for stray cats in their communities. Unfortunately, many municipalities do not have cat bylaws to manage free-roaming cats. We encourage all municipalities to develop bylaws to address free-roaming cats so their residents have options to deal with the unwanted animals on their properties.”
Cypress County has a rural cat program, one that Bailot said residents have embraced.
“We’re really excited about it,” he said. “It’s about putting it on the agenda, recognizing we have an abundance of cats and what solutions do we have. We really encourage community-driven, long-term programs.”
For most, however, there just aren’t many options, says Finseth. Often, when a strange, unclaimed cat appears — friendly, often young but with unknown health issues — figuring out what to do next is difficult. There may be no local vet to take found animals to for treatment and the “shoot, shovel and shut up” approach is not unheard of, even if ineffective.
“Culling cats doesn’t work,” said Nathan Finseth.
“If you have a healthy, stable population of cats, and you cull those, it lets new cats, cats who may not be as healthy, may have behaviour issues, into the area.”
Autumn Gendron has lived in rural Wetaskiwin County for 35 years. She struggles whenever she finds an animal, wandering and unclaimed.
“We had a box with two rabbits and babies dropped off at the end of our driveway,” she said. “When we found them, the babies were dead and the rabbits were sick.
“It sucks. We’ve picked up cats hit by cars and taken to the vet to be euthanized…. I still cry, even though it’s not mine.”
Trapping, neutering and releasing has been one reasonably successful approach but Finseth prefers to rehome if possible.
“We see what that cat will do best in,” she said of her rescued charges. “We can help find indoor homes. If the cat is determined to be wild and free, without his testicles, then we’ll find him a really great barn home.
“We want to give people options. … What can I do for myself, my animals and these cats?”
