To The Editor,
Times are tough everywhere. Funds are low, debts are high. People struggle to make ends meet from day to day, paycheck to paycheck, month to month. But as humans, we have the power to speak and to ask for help. We can always do something, anything to help ourselves and to make our lives better because we have the ability to communicate. One way or the other we can help ourselves or ask for help. If we’re hungry we can make ourselves something to eat, or ask for help, go to a food bank, a soup kitchen or go grocery shopping or do something. If we’re cold we turn up the heat, or put on an extra sweater or blanket, go to a friend or family member, whatever!!
What would modern women do if every time they got pregnant they were popping out three to five babies – three or maybe even four times a year? Since we all know that’s not possible, what if women gave birth to that many every year until their bodies couldn’t do it anymore? Ladies, how would you do it alone, every time without help, a hospital or a doctor? Men? I’m not letting you guys off the hook that easy. After all, I’m more than positive that your wife, your girlfriend, or the lady you had an affair with didn’t miraculously become pregnant on her own. I’m sorry, guys, but you have it easy compared to the women. You don’t have to carry these growing and kicking little thumb-sucking humans for nine months inside your belly. One is bad enough when it comes to the heartburn, the morning sickness and the toe-jabbing kicks to the ribs, let alone the unsightly stretch marks and the tearing of flesh when that little sucker decides to pop its little head out for the first time like a groundhog poking its head out in early spring to check the weather!
With all joking aside, in Canada and the US we are so lucky because regardless of our age, our religion, our culture or our beliefs, we as modern day people, have the right to say NO, to refuse something and to fight for our rights. Why? Because we can!! People have the ability to speak and to help themselves if and when they want too! It’s not always easy. Nothing worth fighting for ever is, but if we don’t like something, we can change things if we want to or have to.
Now having said all that, the point I am trying so desperately to make concerns unaltered pets and pet abandonment. Domestic unaltered cats, to be more specific, are being dumped off, left behind and abandoned by their owners at alarming rates! Yes, kittens are cute and cuddly but by the time they reach five or six months old, the novelty of having a cute little kitten rubs off and gets replaced by anger and frustration because they soon go from kittenhood to adulthood and we all know what that means, don’t we? Females go into heat and males start marking their territory. These unaltered cats are reproducing and giving birth to litter after litter of unwanted kittens, yet society takes out their anger on the innocent animals for doing what simply comes natural to them. It is the owners who are at fault and are the ones to blame and not the cats! The cats didn’t ask to be born or abandoned. It was forced on them!
We here at Operation Spay & Neuter in Hawkesbury see, trap and rescue more abandoned pets than we do ferals. We help cats from anywhere within an hour’s drive from Hawkesbury in both Ontario and Quebec and with 10 years of experience working with homeless cats, I have never seen a true feral cat.
First of all, the definition of a true “feral” cat is a cat born out in the wild that has had little to no human contact. Semi-feral cats have either been born and raised around humans and are the product of a domestic cat or were born and raised, neglected, abused and then left abandoned with no food or shelter and left to “fend for itself” without even knowing how to “fend for itself!” Come on people, why on earth would you want to treat an animal so badly? Cats and dogs are the only animals on earth that loves you more than you love yourself. While a dog is loyal to his master, a cat’s love is 100% unconditional. They don’t care what you look like or if you have money, drive a fancy expensive car, own your own home or if you live in a cardboard box and have to share a blanket or a scrap piece of food. They love you no matter what and it’s about time that people start to realize that. Cats are not rodents, hell – they’ll work for you for free in exchange for a warm place to sleep and some good food and maybe a little love now and then. Why is it so much to ask for people to start caring and to get their pets spayed or neutered? This Wednesday, February 27 is World Spay Day and I want to raise awareness about our “Low-Cost Spay and Neuter program” for low income families and individuals. If you cannot afford to have your pet spayed or neutered and you live within an hour’s drive from Hawkesbury, we may be able to help you get your cats sterilized. This low-cost service is also available to anyone who adopts a homeless, abandoned or barn cat into their home, regardless of their financial situation. (By adopting a homeless pet into your home you are helping us to control the overpopulation. So many shelter cats get overlooked and euthanized because there just aren’t enough homes for the over abundance of homeless cats yet people are willing to adopt from a breeder or pet shop which essentially keeps backyard breeders in business. Shelters are loaded with all kinds of domestic and purebred, declawed cats that are already vetted). Once the cat is sterilized through OSN it is then up to you to find your own veterinarian. The clinic we use works strictly with rescues, shelters such as the SPCA, therefore we do not publicize which clinic we use as they are not open to the general public. Their mission, like ours is to control the overpopulation crisis and to give homeless, abandoned, barn and feral cats a chance to live a longer, healthier life with the possibility of adoption.
Pet abandonment, whether you leave it inside an apartment when you leave, drop it off in a box on the side of the road or leave them outside of a shelter is a crime and it is punishable in a court of law. Please stop hurting these precious animals. Life may be hard and cruel to you sometimes but you don’t have to take it out on your pets! If you treat these animals with the love and respect they deserve, they will love you even if you’re a hardened criminal, or a drug addict! They don’t care because unlike humans, they will never ever judge you! All they want is to love and to be loved. Please remember to be kind to animals, because unseen they suffer, unheard they cry, in agony they linger and in silence they die!
Please contact Operation Spay & Neuter for more details about our program and if your cat qualifies for our spay/neuter program. Don’t forget that as a non registered non-profit program we depend on donations and fundraisers to raise the necessary funds in order to help these abandoned cats that we rescue and we simply cannot do it alone. We have received some very generous donations from people who care about the work we do and we cannot thank our supporters enough but please know that without you, this project would not be possible. For emergency situations such as flood, fire, death in the family or other crisis you can find us on the Ontario 211 website at: https://211ontario.ca/
Operation Spay/Neuter, Hawkesbury
If you would like to help OSN, here is what we’re looking for.
Volunteers: Spay Day Drivers, Event Helpers, Trappers and Foster Homes!!!
Cat food and kitty litter donations are urgently needed to help our volunteers who foster the rescues. Beer and Pop Cans, Wine, Beer and Liquor Bottle donations and they can be picked-up by appointment only or dropped off at three area locations.
Monetary Donations are accepted via E-Transfer or PayPal by sending to [email protected] or if you prefer to send a donation by cheque (in trust for Operation Spay & Neuter) directly to the vet clinic contact us for the address. For more information join us on FaceBook or give us a call and leave us a message or text us at 613-632-3467.
