CARMA helping Pictou’s furry feral friends
PICTOU, N.S. — More than 1,100 cats have been spayed or neutered in Pictou County since 2011 and last year alone there were nearly 200 kittens removed from feral cat colonies and adopted.
“It’s feral cats that we deal with. Once we trap them and take them in, we get them spayed or neutered and get them checked all over,” said Allison Marshall, who has been volunteering with Cat Rescue Maritimes (CARMA) for two years now.
The cost associated with vet bills, including spaying/neutering, do add up, and CARMA raises money to keep up their work through donations.
“It all goes toward the cats. None of the volunteers get paid. We don’t have a CEO or anything that it would go to,” said Marshall. “Other than fundraising costs, what we try to spend all our money on is vet bills.
“It’s more of an epidemic than we think. It’s a real issue, we’re finding colonies all over Pictou County. We still have a huge wait list for people who call and say that they have a colony nearby.”
CARMA also offers a lot of logistical support for people who want to volunteer their time as feral cat caregivers.
“We take them back to where they came from, but we make sure there’s a caregiver there who is going to feed them and give them shelter,” said Marshall.
Being a caregiver with CARMA doesn’t cost a thing because the group provides cat food and any other things that might be needed to establish a stable and safe colony.
Once the colony is stabilized, some of the younger, less feral denizens can even be adopted into homes. In 2018 CARMA helped find homes for nearly 200 feral kittens.