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TinyKittens Society hosts Canada’s first ‘fix-a-thon’

Feral cats in Aldergrove will be trapped and spayed/neutered this weekend in a “fix-a-thon” hosted by TinyKittens Society in Fort Langley.
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Feral cats in Aldergrove will be trapped and spayed/neutered this weekend in a “fix-a-thon” hosted by TinyKittens Society in Fort Langley.

Langley’s — and Canada’s — first fix-a-thon organized by TinyKittens Society will happen on October 15 and October 16, Feral Cat Day.

The fix-a-thon using the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) method will start on Saturday with humane trapping at a rural property in Aldergrove before the cats and kittens are transported to TinyKittens headquarters in Fort Langley for intake exams. Dr. Renee Ferguson and staff from Mountain View Veterinary Hospital are donating their time to perform the spays and neuters all day Sunday.

The TNR process is used by volunteers to ensure cats are humanely trapped, sterilized, and medically treated before being released to the wild again, or being adopted, depending on the cat’s behaviour. The project will help more than 40 feral cats.

As TinyKittens has a global online audience they will be livestreaming both days of the event in an effort to raise awareness about feral cats, TNR, and the importance of spaying and neutering. Tune in at TinyKittens.com/fixathon.

An estimated 22,000 feral and free-living cats are currently roaming the City and Township of Langley and most of them are unaltered. Approximately 25 per cent of domesticated cats are also not spayed or neutered, which adds another 6,000 cats living and reproducing in Langley. Cat overpopulation is a community problem and is something that will take the whole community’s help to solve.

With the Trap-Neuter-Return approach the cat population is stabilized, and this method ceases certain behaviours like roaming, yowling, spraying or fighting, allowing the community to welcome the cats as neighbours. It also improves the physical health of cats through vaccination so they are less susceptible to infectious disease.

Leading the campaign is TinyKittens founder, Shelly Roche.

“I think there are several amazing benefits for communities that arise after they embrace Trap-Neuter-Return,” says Roche. “One of the most substantial advantages is a resolution of the conflict that surrounds cats in our neighborhoods. This community program also presents a great opportunity to educate and address concerns neighbours may have about the overpopulation of cats.”

TinyKittens is operated by Shelly Roche and a team of volunteers out of Fort Langley.

In March 2015, TinyKittens became a registered non-profit society developing cutting-edge cat welfare programs that have an impact far beyond the kittens and cats that are rescued.

Since starting, TinyKittens has fostered and cared for pregnant and injured feral cats, started a feral cat recovery ward, created a mapping app that allows people to report feral and abandoned cats and launched a classroom curriculum to teach kids critical skills like leadership, compassion, writing, creativity, the power of social media and much more.

To learn more and to donate, please visit: http://bit.ly/2dL0h5c