A “catty” situation is continuing in Bath, west of Kingston. Residents say despite animal welfare officials getting involved, the village’s feral cat situation hasn’t improved.
In fact, some people say the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals hasn’t followed through on what it said it would do. One of them is Heather Patterson, the founder of “For the Love of Ferals,” a cat rescue organization based out of Stone Mills Township.
“There are roughly 20 inside the house and outside at that time — our count was roughly five overflowing which we were going to deal with. So I told the OSPCA, ‘That’s fine, you take the inside cats, we’ll deal with the outside,’ because the OSPCA does not deal with the outside cats.”
Patterson says that count has now gone up to around 11 outside. The OSPCA is investigating the matter.
Melissa Kosowan is the acting associate director of communications for Ontario. She told Global News says couldn’t say a lot because it is an ongoing investigation but did say the owners are being co-operative.
She went on to say that the OSPCA is working with the owners to rehome some of the cats.
“Orders have been issued under provincial animal welfare legislation to ensure the standards of care required under provincial animal welfare legislation are met. The owner is being cooperative to improve conditions for the cats.”
Both parties agree the bottom line is the health of the cats. Patterson says things will only get worse if the felines aren’t spayed or neutered.
In fact, she says female cats can have up to 21 kittens a year and kittens can get pregnant at four months old.
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