Marlborough Four Paws plea for help

WILLIAM WOODWORTH

Staff at an over stretched cat rescue centre are hoping council will step in and help meet escalating costs.

With a full house and packed foster homes, Marlborough Four Paws is overflowing with cats and kittens.

Overwhelmed volunteers who have seen adoptions slow down, but large numbers of cats, kittens and canines continue arriving, hope council may be able to contribute. Marlborough Four Paws has desexed more than 1100 cats since 2017, says volunteer Michelle.

“Adoptions are slow across the board because nobody has any spare money, but it also costs us as a charity to keep them – our average monthly vet bill is five figures and we spend about $1500 a month on food alone.

“At this rate we’ll spend over $100,000 at the vet this year, and we’re completely funded by community donations and the odd grant with no support from Council or other organisations.”

The facility currently has 60 plus cats with another 60 plus out in foster homes. However, with the recent explosion of street cats –some that are already pregnant – their services are stretched to the limit.

“Incoming funds and outgoing costs don’t add up, but we do what we can” Michelle says.

“Everything here was donated from the good of Marlburian’s hearts including the housing facilities and fences being built by volunteers. We’ve started using free sawdust instead of $800 a month on litter, we have no paid staff”.

“It’s constantly intense, a quiet day for us is half a dozen callouts regarding strays or unwanted animals” says fellow volunteer Gabby.

Both say they are “incredibly grateful” for the support from the Marlborough community, but Four Paws can’t run solely on the love of animals and volunteer enthusiasm.

“We wouldn’t be here without community support, they’re just incredible, but we really need to see the Council stepping up because there’s a blind spot in their animal organisations dealing with cats,” Michelle says.

“If the Marlborough District Council doesn’t acknowledge it, they’ve got tens of thousands of cats roaming within a year –we’ve got the community that we’re so thankful for, but we need the powers that be to step up.”

It’s not unusual for Four Paws going into the Sounds or across to Seddon or Rai Valley to collect animals, while tracking those they can’t house at feeding sites.

The stray cat situation has wide-reaching impacts with volunteers aware of consequences for Marlborough’s ongoing conservation efforts.

“We know of at least ten stray cats currently pregnant so it’s a vicious circle. One mother can have four litters a year so the population explodes quickly,” explains Gabby.

“We’ve taken 150 cats in the last two years from the local dump alone and rehome who we can, but we trap, desex and re-release there too and go up every night for checks”.

“There’re cats in parks and Wither Hills Farm Park that we’re trying to trap before the beautiful birdlife is wiped out.

“We never release cats back into protected areas like the Sounds because native birds are in their firing line”, says Michelle. However, Four Paws says there are simple solutions Marlburians can do to help.

“Please, desex your animals. Pets aren’t a way to make a quick buck, says Michelle.

“It’s a bit of a nightmare to be honest.

“You can’t think about it or you get brought to tears by the situations we see – everyone sees our beautiful site and adorable kittens, but there’s an entire other dark side”.

Marlborough District Council will consider Four Paws’ submission to its annual plan process. To find out more about Marlbor- ough Four Paws and to make a donation visit https://marlboroughfourpaws.co.nz/