Feeding stray cats may do more harm than good, B.C. SPCA says

CBC News

· Posted: Dec 07, 2024 9:00 AM EST | Last Updated: December 7, 2024

The B.C. SPCA is informing British Columbians astir the harm that feeding stray cats tin origin arsenic its Kamloops subdivision cares for 8 strays from 1 spot and prepares to bring successful up to 25 much from the aforesaid place. 

The enactment says that stray cats, which aren't spayed oregon neutered, tin breed rapidly and often go excessively overmuch for those feeding them.

"They tin breed arsenic aboriginal arsenic six months of age," Daria Evans, manager of the B.C. SPCA's carnal centre successful Kamloops, told  Gloria Macarenko, the big of CBCs On The Coast.

Stray cats, she said, tin extremity up with parasites and different illnesses — a outgo that radical whitethorn not beryllium prepared for erstwhile they commencement innocently feeding neighbourhood felines.

Several outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of avian flu person been reported successful B.C. birds; however, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, it tin dispersed to different mammals. 

Because cats, particularly strays, travel into interaction with birds, determination is simply a accidental for infection, according to the Stewardship Centre of B.C. They counsel keeping favored cats indoors and distant from chaotic birds, but that's not imaginable with strays. 

In the Kamloops case, 2 of the cats were euthanized, the SPCA said. 

"Cats, erstwhile they are reaching a definite age, and they person not had quality socialization oregon capable quality socialization, erstwhile they scope adulthood and they are under-socialized oregon feral, it tin beryllium highly challenging for them psychologically to travel into a structure and commencement to effort to get utilized to quality beings," Evans said.

Because they were suffering from illnesses, she said it was much humane to enactment the cats down than effort to springiness them regular medication. 

Evans acknowledges that radical typically consciousness they're being benignant by feeding strays but is urging caution due to the fact that it often ends with the SPCA being called successful to assistance radical woody with "exploding" populations of cats. 

Because they're feral and tin transportation disease, she said that erstwhile these cats get astatine SPCA centres, they request to beryllium successful abstracted rooms distant from different animals. Staff person to deterioration idiosyncratic protective equipment and depending connected what attraction is needed, the cats are bathed and enactment connected medicine for respective days, she said. 

"It does adhd a batch of enactment for the staff, and it conscionable adds a small spot of logistical situation erstwhile it comes to bringing them in," Evans said.