For over 28 years, the grassroots organization Caregivers of Petrolia Ferals has helped the local and large population of undomesticated cats by providing vital medical care, shelter when needed and preventing bad outcomes.
After nearly three decades of assisting feral, semi-social and abandoned domestic cats the organization – which receives no funding from government – is asking the public for help as it is facing an impending crisis.
With medical costs rising, several local veterinarians retiring or about to retire and a steady increase in the population of undomesticated cats, the caregivers have started a GoFundMe page – located at https://gofund.me/5de36724 – aimed at raising cash to allow them to continue helping the cats.
“The organization is falling behind financially for several reasons,” said the group’s Courtney Levert. “Between veterinary care and the state of the cats, we’re in a constant state of emergency. The organization is strapped for cash to be able to get proper care for these animals and of course everything is coming at a high cost.
“The vets that are available are much more costly, we’ve had a lot of vets retired recently, so no one is able to provide services at a lower cost anymore. We can appreciate fundraising for food, shelter and foster care, but what we truly need is money to get this care dealt with,” she continued. “Each month we’re taking in 25 cats, and each cat requires hundreds of dollars to get them proper care. So it’s really unfortunate that we can’t (sustain that) and we’re desperate to help in that sense.”
The recent increase in the cat population means money is needed quickly to help stave off a future surge of feral kittens, Levert said.
“This is an ongoing problem – feral cats are semi-social and domestic cats that have been dumped into the community. Some people who got cats during COVID realized they couldn’t afford veterinary services for their animals – because it is going up – but the majority of these cats are farm cats who are breeding, increasing the number of feral cats,” she said.
The group has set the target of $10,000 for their fundraiser, enough to get at least some of the most urgent medical care done in a timely fashion, Levert said. Members are already planning future fundraisers, but the Go Fund Me campaign is aimed at getting funds fast in order to manage through the spring.
“And I want to be clear – we’re so grateful for all the veterinarians who have assisted us over the years, but as I said a lot of them have retired and we don’t have as many options anymore. So we’d be grateful for any money to help us out,” Levert added. “And with spring coming we’re going to have many more cats to deal with.”