Open an Adoption Center for Rescued Cats

Overview:

Craig Street Cats is a grassroots non-profit organization working to humanely manage Winnipeg's free roaming cat population. With an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 feral, stray, lost and abandonned cats currently roaming the city, management is desperately needed. The group provides trap / neuter / return for unsocialized adult cats, rescue for kittens and social adults, community outreach, and education regarding feral cats.

Unfortunately CSC does not have a physical space to work from, and must rely on foster placements for rescues. This severely limits the number of cats that can be helped, and hampers the group in many other ways.

An adoption center would allow Craig Street Cats to expand its program by providing much needed space to house cats and kittens available for adoption, as well as retail space for fundraising. The regular hours of a storefront location would allow unscheduled visits from potential adopters and undoubtedly increase adoption rates. An adoption center would also provide much needed meeting, educational and storage space.

Why is this necessary?

Removing kittens for taming and adoption makes an immediate impact on feral cat populations, breaks the cycle of mating, reproduction and death, and allows for trap / neuter / return of adult cats that no longer have the burden of providing for their young.

Currently, there is no other organization directly working with Winnipeg's feral cat population. Other cat shelters are overwhelmed with the number of strays and surrendered pets coming in, and none of them have the room or resources required to properly care for and tame feral kittens. This means that feral cats and kittens are either ignored or put to death by animal services.

What impact will this have on your community?

Craig Street Cats is currently turning away 20 to 30 feral cats and kittens EVERY DAY because we simply do not have any space. The people who call about the cats are almost always devastated to learn that there is no placement available for the kittens they have been watching all summer.

Having an adoption center will allow us to place more cats and kittens in loving forever homes, free up foster space so that more kittens can be prepared for adoption, and relieve some of the pressure that concerned people feel over the issue of feral cats and kittens.

Feral Facts

• each intact adult cat will produce 3 kittens every year. In Winnipeg that adds up to betweeen 150,000 and 300,000 kittens this year
• 75% of those kittens will die
• less than 10% of the survivors will be rescued
• the balance will join the breeding population