Feral cats plague Carseland

By Sharon McLeay Times Contributor

Carseland community is trying to find ways to decrease feral cat counts.
“It was brought to my attention after Christmas that there is a feral cat problem in Carseland,” said Wheatland Councillor Donna Biggar.
She said community members met and contacted the Alberta Spay Neuter Task Force to brainstorm what could be done about the problem.
Alberta Spay Neuter Task Force (abtaskforce.org) is a volunteer agency of veterinarians and volunteers that come into communities to provide information, health and neutering services. The organization has worked with Indigenous groups to lessen dog and cat numbers on tribal lands and helped with education, treatment and rehoming for orphaned animals in various other communities. Carseland is the first village that has been helped by the organization.
Biggar said they will be bringing their surgical equipment to the Carseland curling rink about 9 a.m. on April 27, and they will provide deworming, shots, mite treatments and neutering. The treated animals are tagged with ear notches, so they may be identified and then reintroduced to the community. If there are too many to handle on the Saturday, the clinic may stay for another day.
“They tell me if you get rid of all the feral cats, then others just move in,” said Biggar about the reason the cats are sent back to their dens.
Biggar said volunteers have gone door to door to advise people to keep their cats in after April 25, as traps will be set to catch the feral cats.
“We had about 22 people come out to help this weekend, which I thought was a pretty good turnout,” said Biggar.
Flyers have been left and if someone is missing their pet, they are advised to check at the curling rink, in case they were captured in error.
People have scouted out where some of the feral dens are located and traps will be set in those areas.
The group does charge a small fee per animal and the community has begun fundraising to cover costs. Low income pet owners can receive a very reasonable discount to have their pet given shots and spay services.