Regina Cat Rescue submitted the following letter to the editor on Friday, August 1, 2014. Since the Leader-Post doesn't have space to publish the letter, we're posting it on our blog.

Further to It's a Kitten Crisis (July 30, 2014), readers should know that Regina Cat Rescue (RCR), a volunteer-run non-profit organization, currently has 127 cats and kittens in its care, and the numbers are constant year-round. Cats in our community are discarded and treated as disposable items. The stories are heartbreaking and there's no end in sight.

With no physical shelter or paid staff, RCR relies on its network of foster homes to provide care for the cats (RCR pays for all related costs) until they're adopted. Additionally, RCR volunteers feed hundreds of cats each day at approximately 30 feeding stations the organization has set up around the city, where cats are humanely trapped and sterilized as part of our Trap-Neuter-Release program. We’ve sterilized 130 cats to-date in 2014, including 24 feral cats. We still have 47 kittens in care awaiting sterilization.

Warmer months do see a spike in kittens, and volunteers are on the streets nightly trapping stray and feral cats to be sterilized. Tame cats are placed into foster care, when there's room, while feral cats are returned to their colonies. When no foster space is available, tame cats are also returned to their home colony until a space opens up. Colonies are visited each day and cats with health issues are tended to right away.

RCR doesn't take surrendered pets and devotes its resources to cats that have been abandoned on Regina streets. Last year, RCR adopted out over 300 sterilized and vaccinated cats and kittens. So far in 2014, we've adopted out 146 felines and have rescued 170. The numbers tell us that we, as a community, need to do better. The most important thing any pet owner can do is sterilize their pets.

Regina Cat Rescue is a member of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies and a Canadian registered charity. RCR is completely volunteer-run, and funded through donations and grants.

Sabrina Cataldo
Vice-President
Regina Cat Rescue