PARRY SOUND – They need money, they need help and they need a home.
With small monthly donations, volunteers stretched thin and a building bursting at the seams with cats, the Parry Sound Animal Rescue Services (PSARS) has appealed to area municipalities for funds – with none extending a hand thus far.
Additionally, at its January 19 meeting, Parry Sound town council tabled a request from staff to increase the budget for the Low-Cost Spay Neuter Program from $2,500 to $5,000; increase the yearly limit of subsidized surgeries from one to two per household; and allow unlimited subsidized spay and neuter surgeries for the organization until the 2010 budget was developed.
The town currently pays for half the cost of one spay operation or neuter per household. In 2009, the Low-Cost Spay Neuter Program paid for half the cost of fixing just five cats from PSARS, the rest, more than 100, president Katie Dexter said they paid for themselves through fundraisers and donations. And because of the great expense of spaying or neutering, Dexter takes the animals to a clinic in Newmarket for lower rates.
“I just had somebody call me and say that they had an animal (spayed) here in town and it cost them over $400 for a spay. And that’s why we have so many cats running around town,” she said. “I’m taking five (cats) down next week, we’ve taken as many as 14 at a time, all the way to Newmarket. When you have that many you have to be there for 7:45 in the morning, you’re battling Barrie’s rush hour and you’re going from one end of Newmarket to the other in rush hour. It’s crazy. It’s not right.”
Although money is tight for the group, it’s the lack of proper housing for the felines that’s the real issue, Dexter said.
“I’ve adopted two more cats in my own house. I had one cat, then I got another, then I got two more so I’ve actually got four cats in my own home, plus 20 out in the foster home,” said Dexter of the space on her property. “It’s a lot of work, that’s why we may have to close (the organization) down. We’re desperate to have a building where volunteers can go in and work with the cats and help with the cleaning.”
Currently Dexter has three other volunteers, as well as herself, who help feed the animals and clean litter boxes.
“It’s too much for one person and I’ve been doing it for a year now and I’m played right out,” she said. “You consider there are 12 cages out there and there’s a litter in each cage and you clean them two to three times a day, you’re cleaning at least 30 litters a day.”
“If we had a building where we could put all the cats together, have a suitable quarantine area, because as it stands now you can’t even quarantine them when they first come in and then we could have the volunteers go in and help with the cleaning,” she said.
And because the foster home for the animals is on Dexter’s property, she’s worried about liability if someone is injured while volunteering.
“I’m petrified that somebody’s going to come and fall or get scratched and end up suing. You can’t just open your door and let just anybody come in,” she said. “We need a building or if there’s somebody out there who has a building that’s sitting idle that’s not too, too far out of town, because you need your volunteers to be able to get there without it costing a fortune, we need a building, volunteers and we need money.”
Dexter isn’t taking any more cats in, but there are many ready for adoption. For more information call: 746-9020.
The group first formed to fill the gap when the Ontario Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) closed its Parry Sound animal shelter in 2007.