New Brunswick cat colony survey results ‘surprising’ to rescue group

A year-long survey being done by Cat Rescue Maritimes (CARMA) is shining light on where cat colonies exist in New Brunswick, and how many feral cats there currently are.

CARMA president Sue Knight said the organization has gotten 146 responses through their online survey since launching it in March.

Knight said the “biggest surprise” was finding out that the majority of responses indicate there are more cat colonies in urban areas than rural, with 67 per cent reported in residential locations.

READ MORE: New Brunswick cat rescue group says ‘hard data’ needed on cat colonies, launches survey

“What we don’t know right now, and this is what we’ve got to start assessing, is whether in fact the news has not got out to the rural areas,” Knight said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "What we don't know right now, and this is what we've got to start assessing, is whether in fact the news has not got out to the rural areas," Knight said.

Knight said the results give the exact locations of the colonies, but said that’s data they will dive into after the survey closes in the spring.

According to the responses, many of the cats have wounds, abscesses, physical deformities and more than 70 per cent were reported to have widespread upper respiratory infection.

Knight said up to this point evidence of cat colonies in the province has been anecdotal and said the hard data being collected will show how much of a problem feral cats are in the province, and will aid in being able to come up with a solution.

“Now we’re going to be having hard data.  That will allow us to go to all the stakeholders from provincial government, municipal government, rural communities, the veterinarian areas… the New Brunswick SPCA and other very concerned citizens to get a good representation around the table and say, ‘Okay, these are the hard facts,'”Knight said.

She said that without mobile and non-profit clinics they rely on vets for their “wonderful kindheartedness”, but said as more colonies are discovered, it could push vets too hard.

New Brunswick SPCA executive director Carolyn Carter-Legacy said she wasn’t overly surprised by the results based on the calls they get about colonies.

“Having hard data like this is always great because before we were just kind of relying on people saying ‘well this is a problem’, now we actually have the numbers to back it up and say, ‘Okay look, this is a legitimate problem, we need to sit down and look at exactly what we’re going to do to help curb this problem,'” Carter-Legacy said.

READ MORE: Nova Scotia SPCA program reduces Halifax cat colony populations

She said many of the calls they get at the SPCA regarding colonies are in or just on the outskirts of Fredericton.

“It would be interesting to see more results of the survey to see exactly the demographic of people answering the survey to see if numbers are representative of the actual colonies,” Carter-Legacy said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It would be interesting to see more results of the survey to see exactly the demographic of people answering the survey to see if numbers are representative of the actual colonies," Carter-Legacy said.

Right now, she said when they get a call on the hotline about a cat colony the SPCA dispatches a protection officer to go assess the colony situation and see what kind of health they’re in and if they have any sort of food supply and shelter and make sure none are in distress.

She agrees it will be beneficial to get all stakeholders together to come up with a solution.

Knight said some  possible solutions include working with the province on more funding for a mobile clinic to spay and neuter cats in areas across the province, similar to what Nova Scotia does, or working with municipalities to share the cost of neutering and vaccinating the cats.

Knight said Sussex, N.B. is also another example of what can happen when a municipality can dove tail with a trap-neuter organization.

She said the town council partnered with the CARMA chapter there after receiving many complaints about feral cats spraying and fighting in the community.

Knight said the town is paying for the neutering and the organization is paying for vaccinations.  She said the results were noticeable quickly and it solved the cat colony problem.

There are currently 46 colonies reported, with approximately 10 cats per colony.  She said within six months that could mean there could be close to 1,000 new free-roaming cats in the province.