Cat rescue charity’s $22k vet bill
A Christchurch cat rescue charity has been hit with a $22,500 vet bill in a single month.
Charitable trust Cat Rescue Christchurch uses the ‘‘no kill’’ trap, neuter and return method, and socialises, desexes and rehomes stray kittens under the age of 8 weeks in an attempt to reduce the city’s stray cat population.
Managing director Beki Milligan said the charity had its biggest ever vet bill in January, its busiest ever month.
‘‘We have been so busy last month and now have our biggest vet bill ever. And we don’t think this month is going to be any different. In January we took on 129 cats and kittens in for rehoming and also desexed another 53 cats,’’ she said.
The operational cost of running the rescue charity was about
$7000, on top of the vet bill. It had received about $6000 in donations for the month.
‘‘We had a few cats with dental issues, that’s why our vet bill was so big. Generally if they are over
2-years-old they will have dental issues. We get cats that need teeth out and that can be quite expensive at about $500 a pop,’’ she said.
She said the numbers of cats and costs of running the charity was rising every year. ‘‘We spend a lot on petrol. Petrol vouchers would be an amazing donation. We spend about $100 in less than two days running around Christchurch and out of town doing trapping and bringing cats to the vets,’’ she said.
Cat Rescue Christchurch is fundraising through an online Givealittle page and has appealed to its 11,000 Facebook followers for help.
In Auckland, Anne Batley Burton, a champagne importer who starred in the show Real Housewives of Auckland, is the chairwoman of the New Zealand Cat Foundation.
Batley Burton said she spent more than $100,000 of her own money to run the foundation every year, which also gets about $35,000 in annual donations. Costs were rising every year, she said.
She had 200 cats in a cat sanctuary – which she calls the Pussy Palace for Pensioners – at her olive estate in Huapai, north of Auckland. She spent $200,000 building the sanctuary. It is now full and she cannot take any more cats but was calling for volunteers to help.
She said the cost of vet care, food, litter and petrol was skyrocketing.
‘‘I pay for their petrol money because our volunteers might not Cat Rescue Christchurch managing director Beki Milligan
be in the best financial situation but they have kind hearts. It’s all done at our own cost. It comes out of my own money or I organise a fundraiser called the Pussy Galore Parties,’’ she said.
The SPCA provided vouchers through the Community Cat Coalition Trust for the desexing but Batley Barton paid for the cats to be microchipped too.
She said more council and government funding was needed to reduce the number of stray cats.
‘‘We will only solve this problem humanely by desexing. This is a community problem caused by a lack of responsibility by humans not educated enough in animal welfare. We need to be teaching this in schools,’’ she said.
To donate go to The New Zealand Cat Foundation website.
‘‘In January we took on 129 cats and kittens in for rehoming and also desexed another 53 cats.’’