The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Kitten control left to volunteers
NORWALK — When Norwalk Animal Control gets a call about a dog, employees know just what to do.
But a cat?
“There are no laws for cats,” said a representative from the agency. “We notify the cat people.”
So when Norwalk resident Lori Baker was driving through the city and her headlights lit up four kittens and their mother, she didn’t know what to do. Instead, she came back to the woodpile where she hadd noticed them the next day.
There they were, except for one. Only three kittens remained.
The last had been hit by a car in the short time she was away.
Baker began making phone calls, starting with her vet, who connected her to Animal Nation. She also called Pet Animal Welfare Society, an animal shelter for both cats and dogs that works with many volunteers.
As she started to go back every day to visit the remaining kittens, she started realizing how many feral cats were living in the neighborhood. Baker said that feral cats can become problems in both wealthy and poor neighborhoods — in this area, she eventually found two dozen.
“That’s when I started getting an understanding of what a big issue this is,” Baker said.
Cats are preyed upon by other animals, hit by cars, maimed, diseased, killed by the cold and sometimes poisoned by people who consider them a nuisance.
Though feral cats proliferate in Norwalk and other cities in Connecticut, the Department of Agriculture does not regulate them or require cities to do so.
The department leaves that to dozens of volunteers like Baker. Those volunteers — who sometimes form nonprofit groups, such as Pitter Patter Feline Rescue in Stamford — trap the cats, vaccinate them for rabies and distemper, spay or neuter them, then return them to the suburban wild.
Since 2001, the state has supported humane groups by giving them vouchers to cover veterinary costs. But this year, no vouchers arrived from the state, said Ilona Zimmer, a PAWS board member.
“Oh my God. We need it so badly,” said Baker regarding the vouchers, which are known as the Feral Cat Program.
A notice on the Department of Agriculture website said the vouchers were suspended Aug. 1 and would remain so until further notice. The program was paid for using dog licensing fees and other revenue generated by the department's Animal Population Control Division, and did not draw money from Connecticut’s General Fund, according to the website.
But the state was so strapped for cash the Legislature passed a deficit mitigation bill that included transferring $150,000 from the Animal Population Control account to the General Fund, department spokesman Steve Jensen said.
Lawmakers, faced with a deficit of $2.3 billion, did not adopt a new budget by July 1, leaving Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to take control of state finances by emergency executive order. That gave him little choice but to make deep cuts that “will not be painless on the people of Connecticut,” Malloy said in executing the order.
The pain extends to helpless animals, said Cora Martino, founder of Pitter Patter.
“I have a cat with a gash in its leg full of maggots. Half the kittens born out there die. They have rabies, distemper, parasites, feline leukemia and feline infectious peritonitis, which is a killer,” she said. “Last year we trapped 36 very friendly cats, meaning they were recently abandoned pets. We can tell before we even open the trap, because they see us and start purring, and when we reach in, they rub their heads against our hands.”
Now that the state has a budget, Jason Bowsza of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture said Thursday the vouchers will not resume immediately. Instead, the vouchers that were due out in September are expected to be issued starting Jan. 1.
Last year, Pitter Patter’s vouchers from the state amounted to $4,750, Martino said. That paid for treatment of 75 cats — most of the 132 she and three other volunteers trapped. In Norwalk, PAWS received vouchers for 25 of the 200 cats that participated in its programs.
In a typical year, Pitter Patter raises about $6,500 in donations, Martino said. Without the vouchers, the tiny group will have to raise about $12,000. Many individuals who trap, neuter or spay and release cats had tales of dipping into their own pockets to help meet neighborhood needs.
But Martino had evidence that coordinated efforts can make a difference. Last year, the volunteer group concentrated on two neighborhoods. The following spring, it did not get a single call about newborn kittens from either area.
“So it's working,” Martino said. “Without the vouchers, though, there will be many more cats out there reproducing.”
A single female can give birth two or three times a year, with an average litter of four to six kittens.
“Not a day goes by that I don't get at least one voicemail from someone saying, ‘Can you come to my neighborhood? There's a bunch of kittens that need help,’” Martino said.
“The state leaves the work to us,” Martino said. “But now, apparently, we are on our own.”