G.N.A.W.S Fundraiser
The Greater Nechako Animal Welfare Society (G.N.A.W.S.) is a registered not-for-profit organization formed by a group of concerned citizens in November 2015, who identified a gap in animal welfare services in Vanderhoof and the surrounding area. The G.N.A.W.S. Board has six Directors that volunteer their time to governance and doing operational work. G.N.A.W.S. also has several members who have donated items for fundraising, as well as volunteers who have generously given up space in their homes and time to foster and socialize adoptable cats and kittens for eventual adoption.
G.N.A.W.S has three main objectives:
1. Facilitate activities that improve the welfare of domestic animals;
2. Assist pet owners who may not otherwise have the means to provide appropriate care for their animals; and,
3. Promote public education for responsible animal care.
Right now, G.N.A.W.S is focusing on TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) of unowned, unadoptable feral cats around the town of Vanderhoof. Based on our current knowledge, it is believed that there are at least 80 to 100 unowned cats and kittens living in various colonies within town limits. We would eventually like to expand our TNR program to other areas, including Cluculz Lake and First Nations communities.
Since November 2015, G.N.A.W.S has:
Trapped, neutered and released 19 cats from three different colonies in Vanderhoof. Sixteen of those cats were female with most either pregnant with a total of 36 kittens, or in heat at the time of surgery;
Trapped, fostered, socialized and adopted out 24 feral kittens;
Covered surgical costs to spay two female cats found abandoned in a box with nine kittens by Plateau sawmill;
Temporarily fostered two surrendered cats, and facilitated the adoption of one surrendered cat, from Fort St James on behalf two other animal welfare groups;
In August 2016, we accepted a pregnant cat that was abandoned by the tenant of a rental house in Vanderhoof. “Nina” recently gave birth to five healthy kittens. All are being fostered by a local family until the kittens are weaned, with G.N.A.W.S providing food, litter and any other needs as they arise. “Nina” will be spayed in a few weeks, and all six cats will receive veterinary check-ups, parasite treatments and vaccinations prior to adoption.
The work we do is rewarding and heart wrenching. We have trapped a feral cat so emaciated from a lack of regular food and who was unable to recover from repeat pregnancies that she had to be kenneled in order to receive several days of extra care from a G.N.A.W.S. Director until she was healthy enough to be released back to her colony.
Another young female cat recently trapped for spaying as found to have had so many pregnancies and kittens that her uterus fell apart in the vet’s hands during surgery. It is likely one more pregnancy would have killed her.
G.N.A.W.S. relies on donations and grants to do its work. Currently we have some matching funding available from the District of Vanderhoof for TNR. We have also have received enough donations from generous local individuals to cover the surgical costs for four cats. However, because there is more work and requests for help than we have the financial capacity to do, we need to continually seek donations to help continue with, and build on, much-needed animal welfare services in and around our community.
Donations to this fundraiser will be used for sterilizing unowned cats, covering costs to support animals in foster homes, and purchasing supplies such as age-appropriate books for our humane education program being developed for local schools.
Some examples of how your donation will help:
$110 will spay a female cat
$80 will neuter a male cat
$25 will buy a large bag of cat food for volunteers fostering adoptable cats and kittens
$10 will purchase “Nobody’s Cat”, a humane education book written and published by Valerie Ingram and Alistair Schroff, founders of Lakes Animal Friendship Society in Burns Lake.
We will be most grateful for any amount donated, however small, because 100% of your donation will go to helping animals in the Nechako Valley.
Thank you so much!
Please visit out Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/293477590806417/
