Kitten Cottage challenges cat catastrophe
Cáit Markey & Thomas Lyons
Kitten Cottage was started in 2004 by Máire Egan with the honourable intention of rescuing around 100 cats. The Virginia based sanctuary is just shy of giving assistance to its 8,000 feline friend since it commenced operations. The figures reflect an explosion in Cavan's wild cat population as many owners fail to neuter their pet.
“Most people get their females done, very rarely do they get their males done. They don't realise male cats are half the problem,†Máire told The Anglo-Celt.
Kitten Cottage is a voluntary organisation that cares for cats and kittens that are cast aside, maltreated and malnourished: 'There's a huge issue with overpopulation in Cavan, and it seems to be that the county council don't want to do anything about it. If you ring up the county council office today and say you have a problem with a cat, they will hand you out my number,' the founder explained.
Cavan County Council has responsibility for the control of horses in Cavan under the Control of Horses Act, 1996, and for the control of dogs in the county, under the the Control of Dogs(Amendment) Act 1992, but the control of feral cats does not fall under the remit of local authorities.
However Máire feels growing frustration at this stance.
“It's very expensive to get your cat neutered, and that's why people don't do it. We run a catch, neuter, release - basically we get people to find the cats, we trap the cats, we get them neutered by the vet and we release them back to where they came from. Quite a lot of people have availed of that, we've done about 446 since January.â€
It is estimated that about 35% of pet owners refuse to get their cats neutered. The reasons why are vague and differ from a lack of resources, to a fear of hurting the pets or even just ‘not wanting to interfere with nature'.
However, this leads to thousands of unwanted kittens being born every year. Cats can produce three litters in a year, each can have five or six kittens. There simply aren't enough caring homes available for them all. The kittens end up abandoned on our roadsides, roaming housing estates, scrounging for scraps at the bottom of our gardens.
Máire says public support is vital to the work of Kitten Cottage: “We run completely on donations. We do two pop up shops a month, one in Virginia and one in Oldcastle. The money we take in from that, we use it to run a cat neuter release. But we can't save them all.â€
Kitten Cottage are having a sale of work on Saturday, August 12 in the Church of Ireland hall Virginia from 11am to 1pm, and will also host a pop up retail event from 10am-5pm Wednesday, August 23 at the 2017 Virginia Show.
Cavan County Council direct the public to Kitten Cottage Animal Sanctuary, but Márie says that they are limited in what they can do.
“Unfortunately we can't take in wild cats. We do offer the trap, neuter and release program. We receive no funding from Cavan County Council for this, we fund it ourselves by donations and the pop-up shop in the Church of Ireland Hall in Virginia the second Saturday of every month. The council have no specific directive to control cats, but they are named on a list of ‘vermin' to be controlled.â€
Kitten Cottage is, at present, home to 15 cats, one month ago it accommodated 52 felines all picked up off the streets of Cavan: “We will re-home all of these. Around 70% of our cats come from Ballyjamesduff and Cavan town. All cats over six months will be spayed or neutered before they leave the sanctuary. We also offer a discount to spay or neuter all kittens when they reach six months. This discount is available to everyone whether they received the cat from Kitten Cottage or not or whether they are in receipt of a social welfare payment or not.
“We will continue to offer this neutering service for as long as we can, if everyone took responsibility for their own cat there would be no problem with wild cats in Cavan.â€
For further information please contact Máire at 087-7676714 or check out the Facebook page - The Kitten Cottage Animal Sanctuary.