During the recent November cold weather, CatSpan was contacted about kittens crying on an empty lot on Evanshire Court in Fairwinds. We hoped to try and catch them quickly before they froze or starved to death.
We thought the property was owned by the people who called us about the kittens, and tried to feed them there to get them used to our traps.
CatSpan is dedicated to humanely and safely trapping feral cats/kittens and getting them the care they need. We do so without harming cats or any other wildlife.
Unfortunately the property where we fed was private property. The owners may have mistaken our intent — which was to rescue kittens — with some other purpose. We couldn’t put a sign up where we were, as we can’t leave a cat vulnerable in a trap and known to the public, sadly enough there are people who harm animals. Ultimately our traps were taken and so was the food.
CatSpan is a local registered charity, which operates on the generosity of donors and the loss of the traps and the opportunity to rescue these kittens has been quite a setback. One of the traps was specifically for kittens. The trapper — a senior and a laborer — bought that trap with hard earned money to help CatSpan rescue cats.
We respectfully ask whoever took our traps to please contact CatSpan and return them, especially the kitten trap. You can contact us at nanoosecatspan@gmail.com or call the numbers on our website to let us know how to make arrangements to get the traps.
We would also like to thank the Fairwinds Community Association for their help and the residents we spoke to that offered support and help locating the kittens.
Our apologies to the owners of the vacant lot for trespassing — if you were the ones who removed the traps — and for not leaving a note explaining why we were there.
For those who don’t know of our work, our intent was to TNR (trap, neuter, return) provide vet care for the kittens and relocate them or socialize for adoption. True feral cats (wild) are neutered so they can’t reproduce. We try to return them to their colonies where they are fed or they are placed in barn homes. You can find out more about CatSpan on Facebook or our website, www.catspanferals.com/
If you would like to help, either by donating money, replace our kitten trap or to support our work in the community we would be most grateful. Donations can be sent to CatSpan, P.O Box 64 Nanoose Bay, B.C., V9P 9J9 or online via CanadaHelps.org We are a registered charity.
Shawn Hooper, CatSpanNanoose Bay