PR Feral Cat Assistance Fund

Have you ever seen a cat on your street that you’ve never seen before? Have you ever wondered what their story is, if they have a warm bed in a home, are protected from bad weather, and food to eat every day? 

In Prince Rupert, these questions are a reality for many cats. Between Prince Rupert and Port Edward, a district about 10 minutes away from Prince Rupert, the BC SPCA estimates that there are between 2500-3000 stray and feral cats in our area. For those who are actively involved in the cat scene here, it is a reality, not just an estimate.


Note: This estimate does not include owned pets, and many households in Prince Rupert have more than one cat because of the many stray and feral cats here. Take a minute and think about how many people you know, that have more than 2 cats.


The plans for this GoFundMe campaign right now are quite simple. We want to raise enough money to construct sturdy winter shelters for some of the cat colonies that exist throughout Prince Rupert. There are 2 large colonies (14+ cats currently) we are focusing on right away, as these two colonies are quite exposed to the elements, and then as funds allow we will build shelters for more colonies. 


Any funds that are raised after the needed shelters are built will be usedof course  to build more shelters as the need arises, support the colonies through food, minor vet care, the rescue of friendly cats and kittens, and having the feral cats TNR’d. Not only will this help the feral and stray cats stay safe, it will reduce the stress on the loving people who look after these cats. Most caretakers have crafted makeshift housing and fed their cats all on their own dollar. Several have also fixed a lot of their feral cats, even before there was an established TNR grant program available. They stepped up when others could not.


For those who are unfamiliar with the term, TNR replaced euthanasia when it was deemed inhumane and a drain on shelter resources, not to mention the emotional cost of euthanizing healthy animals to those working in rescue and veterinary medicine. 


TNR stands for Trap, Neuter, Release. Feral cat colonies in areas that are being cared for by a person or group of people, are caught using safe live traps. They are fixed, vaccinated, and then released back to their home after a short recovery period. Sick and injured cats are assessed, and treated accordingly, whether they need an antibiotics shot or are so sick they are put to rest.


Stray and feral cats often live in colonies, groups of cats that have gathered near a reliable food source, usually someone in the area is feeding them. Almost all colonies start from 1-2 unfixed, usually friendly, cats who have either gotten lost or were abandoned. The number of cats in a colony can vary from 3 to 40+ cats and kittens. At last count, including colonies that have been fully fixed through the TNR program, Prince Rupert has 24 colonies, Port Ed has 3-4 colonies. All these colonies, as of December 2019, had between 4 and 50 cats and kittens.


Most of these colonies were in the 4-6 range then, but it has been 10 months. Female kittens can get pregnant as early as 4 months of age, and they can have up to 3 litters in a year. Those colonies will now be roughly 10-12 cats, depending on how many kittens were born and survived the roughly 75% mortality rate.


These are the colonies the local rescue community and the local SPCA branch are aware of. We know there are more.


Current End Notes:


2020 was the first year Prince Rupert did not receive a grant to assist the community in the last 5-6 years, but with Covid-19 we are unable to fulfill the grant requirements even if we received the grant funds.


For those who knew her, and for those who didn’t get the chance, the TNR program is what Linda Scott focused much of her energy on, for many years. From the collection of colony applications and business sponsorships, all the way to trapping the cats and running large scale bottle sorting. She worked hard to help pay for extra costs like FeLV/FIV lab tests and vaccines, she did it all for the stray and feral cats of Prince Rupert.


The 6 cats in our cover photo, all boys, were once a part of the stray and feral cat statistics. These were once kittens born into a high-risk colony that had been continually devastated by wolves and a cougar. Members of the community  stepped up and worked together to get them out of there in June of 2019. The kittens remained in a foster home for quite some time, but lady luck finally smiled on them in February 2020, and they were transferred down to the lower mainland through the BC SPCA's drive for lives program.  All 6 boys were adopted within 2 weeks, they left Prince Rupert a mere 6 weeks before Covid-19 shut down BC.