A clowder of cats on the College of the Rockies Cranbrook campus is in the news.
The College is seeking a plan to relocate or home the feral colony, while the volunteers who sustain the colony argue that the cats’ longtime home should remain as is.
The colony of feral cats — now numbering 14 — has been on the Cranbrook campus for a decade. The colony is managed by volunteers with the East Kootenay Community Animal Response and Education Society (EKCARES).
But after 10 years, the College, citing an increasing negative impact on its campus, is removing the facilities that make up the colony — the food, water, and cat housing structures — and asking that the cats be relocated.
EKCARES has started a petition to get the College to rescind this action before the end of March deadline.
The online petition states that the “successfully volunteer-run, well-managed TNR’d [trapped-neutered-returned] feral cat colony [has] living on their campus for 10 years. There are 14 cats, and they are healthy, have names, individual personalities, and are strongly bonded to one another.”
“The cats are all spayed, neutered, vaccinated, microchipped. Their food, water and shelter that has been provided to them through the volunteer colony caretaker, at their own personal expense for the entire duration,” the petition adds.
“The college was only required to provide some access to a little space, and had agreed to this.”
A series of social media posts via the College of the Rockies, dated March 20, outlines its reasons for the decision to remove the colony.
“In the last six months, we’ve experienced increased impact on our operations and our ability to maintain a safe learning and working environment for students and employees,” read the COTR twitter thread.
“Our ultimate goal is to maintain a clean and healthy campus for employees, students and the public. There have been ongoing issues reported over the years with on-site contamination from feces and urine.
“Unintended consequences of the colony have seen cats taking shelter in the vehicles in our auto trades programs which have been contaminated with cat nests, feces and in some cases deceased animals. This has caused us to write off two vehicles that had been used for training.
“Last fall, we asked the current caretaker of the feral cat colony to provide a humane plan to relocate the colony with College financial support. Sadly, no solution was provided.”
The EKCARES petition states that “there are no suitable location alternatives for this colony of cats who are deeply connected to their lifelong territory on the college grounds.”
The COTR Twitter thread said that College President Paul Vogt met with a local animal support group “who is interested in working with us to find a new location for the feral cat colony. Further discussion with this group will take place next week and we hope to share details with the community soon.”
The EKCARES petition calls for the College “to leave the feral cats living on the college property; to not destroy their food, water or shelter; to treat the cats humanely; to demonstrate to staff, students and the public they are being a humane and responsible community leader by working with and following the guidance of EKCARES; and to leave the college feral cats to live their lives with continued daily care on the college property - the only home they have ever known. To do anything other than this would be inhumane, cruel and not acceptable!”