(A coyote prowls through our neighbourhoods until it has found its meal. A precious pet. Photos: Janice Richard.)
Janice Richard grew up in Stittsville, now living nearby, and is an independent trapper and rescuer of cats. She often does a number of the rescues for Furry Tales Cat Rescue in Smith Falls, Cat Rescue Network in Ottawa, or any rescue that “needs my help”.
You may recall her name. Janice was the lead rescuer for Furry Tales in finding Athena – the cat that escaped at the Ottawa airport in March from her crate in the airport’s parking garage when on her way to foster care. Athena was found in Winnipeg living in poor conditions and was flown to Ottawa and being transferred to Furry Tales when she went missing due to a broken door on her crate. For 11 days, Janice pretty much lived at the airport. Janice had many people helping her search for Athena, including Nancy Oastler, another name you will recognize for her posts on Lost & Found Pets of Ottawa and Surrounding Area – a great trapper and friend of Janice, along with an endless number of other people who came out to help with the search. In the happy ending, it was airport employee, Blake Fawcett, who trapped Athena. “That was a story that was huge” says Janice.
Janice shared, “I have been involved in animal rescue, specifically cats, for over 20 years. The last 12 years, I have been helping owners reunite with their lost cats, trapping sick/lost cats. I seem to have seen and heard it all.”
Janice wants to make cat owners aware of her experience in rescuing cats over the years. She told us, “Right now, the amount of missing cats in Kanata/Stittsville is staggering. And everyday…more and more are missing. I’m not sure what the answer is to make owners understand that letting your cat roam is so dangerous. As we encroach with building new developments onto the predator’s lands, we can’t be surprised when they turn and come into our neighborhoods to hunt. I myself have video of two coyotes coming into my backyard. I am just off Robertson Road. We also have a Fisher roaming the neighborhood. It’s so scary. My cats are indoors only. We built them a catio”.
Janice continued sadly, “To understand the severity of this…. just in the past two weeks, myself and two other rescuers on my team, have gone to scan what was left of 5 cats. Just in two weeks! Five cats were taken and killed by coyotes or fishers. The kill is pretty much the same over and over, so we know what we are looking at. Sometimes, what remains of the cat is identifiable, or there is a microchip. We all have scanners.”
“This story needs to be told…over and over”, Janice states emphatically. Janice shares the harsh reality of what she and other rescuers see and deal with every single day…
As a rescuer, you have asked me to search and help locate your cat who is allowed to roam. He goes out after dinner, but he’s always home before dark. Always. Until he doesn’t. I have searched.
Sadly, I am now at your door with some very bad news. I have found……the remains of your cat. Since seeing this over and over, I can say he was killed by a coyote, as they are more plentiful in your neighborhood. However, could have been a fisher. They eviscerate their prey. Usually, not much is left to identify, but in this case, the face was clearly visible for ID purposes.
At this point, you are crying and in pain. Yes, I have compassion for that…. but if I am honest, my sadness, pain and pity is for your cat. It was the cat that had to endure being stalked and killed in a fairly vicious manner. It’s rarely a quick death. Some cats put up a decent fight, but in most cases….the battle is lost. Imagine the terror they must endure! They are not aware of this danger when YOU let them outside and allow them to freely roam. Yet YOU are aware. You have to be. With all the education, postings, notices that are put out on all types of sites on Facebook and other social media’s…. you have to be aware
of that fact. And YOU still open the door…. and put them outside.
Yes, there are some cats that simply cannot be kept indoors. However; there are other methods of letting them out and keeping them secure. Catios, harness, leash. If you yourself have a large screened in porch? Replace the screening with pet screening, add some enrichment for the cat, i.e.: cat tree’s, toys, games…. You have now protected your pet.
GPS collars are not protection. Let me say this louder so the people way down in the back can hear. GPS COLLARS ARE NOT PROTECTION!! Do you think a coyote or fisher could care less if your cat has a GPS device around it’s neck? Makes no difference to them…. I have found many collars in my time… break aways, and some ripped off. I have found “kill sites”.
Coyotes, particularly, are living amongst us. We are encroaching on their living spaces/lands, so our backyards are becoming their hunting grounds. And, if we continually supply them with cats allowed to roam….well…the outcome could be devastating for those cats. And sometimes, you’ll just never ever know what happened. One evening, they just never return again. No signs, no sightings, no nothing. Gone!
But sadly….I am here at your door…telling you all this. While we are talking, your other cat runs past us to the outdoors. I look at you. Through your tears, you tell me, yes… she is allowed to be outside too. And after all I have just told you….after all the tears…..after knowing how your poor cat was ripped apart for food….YOU are still going to allow your cat(s) to roam. But you love them. Really???
Love is not allowing your animal to roam and become bait or succumb to any of the many dangers out there for cats. Love is doing whatever it takes to keep them safe. That….that is love for your pet!
We at Stittsville Central are hopeful by sharing Janice’s strong message, residents will think twice before they allow their precious pet cats to roam.
You should no more allow your cat to roam than your 2 year old toddler. They have no protection from cars, nasty people, predators. YOU, supposedly, are the one with brains.
Quite agree! … I grew up around feral cats and developed a life-long appreciation and affection for them. I’ve also found that, along with individual people, collective society can be callously cruel towards such homeless cats. It’s incredibly sad when they have no warm home, especially if it’s due to abandonment.
Meanwhile, so very many people with cats experience the emotional benefits of their presence. Of course, those qualities, especially an un-humanly innocence, makes losing that pet one day such a heartbreaking experience.
Cats have a beneficial influence over humanity that many people still cannot fathom; and their precious positive effect on their human hosts can also be beneficial to the pets themselves.
There’s an actuality of healthy reciprocal relationships — some cat lovers would even go as far as to describe it as somewhat symbiotic — between felines (many of us see them as family members) and their loving and appreciative human hosts, especially physically and/or mentally ill hosts.
I recently read in the international news magazine The Guardian Weekly that Houston, B.C. resident Bruce Robinson had taken good care of about 300 stray cats that had been abandoned by owners but could not afford to do so any longer due to the loss of his paying job.
To me this guy is a genuine hero, which is a term I virtually never use [in fact, I find it tossed about in/by the media rather too loosely and liberally]. Houston’s city council should, at the very least, award Mr. Robinson some funding to continue his cat-compassionate work!
Conversely, in Surrey, B.C. there was an estimated 36,000 feral/homeless cats, very many of which suffer severe malnourishment, debilitating injury and/or infection. That number was about six years ago. I was informed four years later by the local cat charity that, if anything, their “numbers would have increased, not decreased” since then.
Yet the municipal government, as well as some aware yet uncaring residents, did little or nothing to help with the local non-profit trap/neuter/release program, regardless of its (and others’) documented success in reducing the needlessly great suffering.
The TNR program is the only charity to which I’ve ever donated, in no small part because of the plentiful human callousness towards the plight of those cats and the countless others elsewhere.
I was greatly saddened when told by that non-profit via email that, “Our TNR program is not operating. There are no volunteers that are interested in trapping and there is no place to recover the cats after surgery until they can be returned to a site with a feeding station.”
At about the same time, I read in the local news that 59 kittens and cats had been rescued from a feces-filled home. While one local newspaper, The Peace Arch News, rightfully deemed this worthy of frontpage space, The Surrey Now Leader didn’t give these afflicted animals any newsprint at all. Were these felines and their suffering worth so little?
All of the above basically translate into a whole bunch more feline suffering that has long been already needlessly too high.
Yet, only when their over-populations are greatly reduced in number by responsible owners consistently spaying/neutering their felines, might these beautiful animals’ presence be truly appreciated — especially for the symbiotic-like healthy relationships they offer their loving owners — rather than taken for granted or even resented.
About six years ago I was informed by the Surrey Community Cat Coalition that Surrey, B.C., had an estimated 36,000 feral/homeless cats, very many of which suffer severe malnourishment, debilitating injury and/or infection. Four years later I learned that, if anything, their “numbers would have increased, not decreased” since then.
Yet, other than that enabled by such cat-related charities as SCCC, Surrey did little or nothing to help with the local non-profit trap/neuter/release (TNR) program, regardless of its, and others’, documented success in reducing the needlessly great suffering.
SCCC’s TNR program was the only charity to which I’ve ever donated, in no small part because of the plentiful human callousness towards the plight of those cats and the countless others elsewhere.
I was greatly saddened when told in February via email that, “Our TNR program is not operating. There are no volunteers that are interested in trapping and there is no place to recover the cats after surgery until they can be returned to a site with a feeding station.”
Nevertheless, I donated $200 towards their general neuter/spay program, which also greatly needs public donations. Nearly 2,000 homeless and abandoned cats and kittens in the Surrey area are rescued every year by such non-profit charities.
Thankfully, there are those who are doing far more than I.
I recently read in the international news magazine The Guardian Weekly that Houston, B.C. resident Bruce Robinson had so selflessly taken good care of about 300 stray cats that had been abandoned by owners but could not afford to do so any longer due to the loss of his paying job.
To me this guy is a genuine hero, which is a term I virtually never use [in fact, I find it tossed about in/by the media rather too loosely and liberally]. Houston’s city council should, at the very least, award Mr. Robinson some funding to continue his cat-compassionate work! …
Cat owners need to neuter or spay their pet at an early age; and if it must be allowed outdoors, to always keep it on a chest-harness [‘leash’] during walks.
If you won’t do it for the vulnerable wildlife potentially killed by your roaming cat, then PLEASE do it for your also-very-vulnerable cat.
And I find it ironic that, while outdoor cats are generally so destructive to their smaller prey, Metro Vancouver’s second most populous City of Surrey has largely permitted its feral/homeless cat population to explode.