Kitten Season is upon us
This year is racing by so quickly, with the on set of Spring and the burst of growth and new life that it heralds, Animal Aid brace ourselves for the inevitable. This edition of enews brings you a tale of a precious yet ominous arrival.

Please don’t get me wrong, every single Animal Aid arrival is special and ofcourse they are welcomed with open arms, but we are only just into the third week of Spring and we have already seen our second litter of kittens in as many weeks. We haven't had a distinct break from the end of the last kitten season, to the beginning of the next one.

Every year we hope that we will see a decline, no matter how small, in the number of cats and kittens we receive over the warmer months. When it doesn’t happen, your heart sinks just a little and we have to concede that yet again it would seem that we’ve had little impact on the semi owned population in our area.

According to the Department of Sustainability and Environment, there are around half a million stray, semi owned and feral cats in Victoria. At Animal Aid we see the results of well meaning people who feed one or more of the cats in their area, every kitten season. They don’t mind feeding the cat or cats on their own but when they get pregnant they tend to want the cats removed. If only they had brought the cat in before she got pregnant, we would only be dealing with one cat to rehome rather than seven.

Every year we hope that we will see a decline, no matter how small, in the number of cats and kittens we receive over the warmer months. When it doesn’t happen, your heart sinks just a little and we have to concede that yet again it would seem that we’ve had little impact on the semi owned population in our area.

According to the Department of Sustainability and Environment, there are around half a million stray, semi owned and feral cats in Victoria. At Animal Aid we see the results of well meaning people who feed one or more of the cats in their area, every kitten season. They don’t mind feeding the cat or cats on their own but when they get pregnant they tend to want the cats removed. If only they had brought the cat in before she got pregnant, we would only be dealing with one cat to rehome rather than seven.

The classic adage of "it’s not my cat, I just feed it" just doesn’t cut it these days, we urge everyone to take responsibility for the semi owned cats in their neighbourhood. Semi owned cats often suffer from very poor health, even with the supplementary food it is a very dangerous and hard life. By feeding them you may help keep them alive but you also make them strong enough to reproduce, therefore condemning their offspring to the same life of disease and neglect.

If you have a stray cat in your area please hand it in to your council or local shelter, they would much rather receive just one today than six or seven in a months time. For more information contact your local shelter for advice or visit www.whosforcats.com.au.

If you would like to donate to help us help them, please click here >>

Marathon Man update
Just thought we would take the opportunity to do some house keeping and let you know the final tally for Ben O’Ryan's Marathon run. This week we were presented with a cheque for donations to the value of $1228.20. Once again a really great effort !!