Downloaded from YTS.MX
♪
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(rattling)
♪
(door opening)
(meowing)
♪
They were just found loose in the plant.
Yeah, our forklift guy, he thought it was rats.
(meowing)
♪
Adorable, right?
How old are you? You look like my other babies.
Yeah, you have teeth.
Good baby.
So, somehow they're making their way in here,
and they're having their litters or they're being dropped off.
We used to take them home, but we can't take them all home.
-That's the problem. - I know.
(meowing)
(forklift beeping)
(meowing)
(thudding)
(engine starting)
♪
(cat cooing)
♪
(birds chirping)
♪
(whirring)
It is a feline free for all in Cornwall,
as feral cats have taken over neighborhoods.
They may be cuddly and cute, but in Cornwall feral cats
have become a big problem.
They're breeding and feeding,
and they're using the whole street
as a litter box.
Some residents are embracing the cats,
leaving food around.
Well, getting everyone to agree on a solution
is much like herding cats.
Residents and volunteers alike just want the city
to stop pussyfooting around.
It's a catastrophe.
♪
The city of Cornwall dropped the ball many years ago.
There should have been money into the budget every year.
We wouldn't be in this predicament now.
We wouldn't be.
I am Mary Jane Proulx from Cornwall, Ontario.
Lived here all my life.
Growing up I had rabbits and guinea pigs,
and all kinds of animals.
I remember trying to save little birds
whenever I was, like, 8 years old.
No, they all died,
but at least I tried to save them.
I do the right thing, and I expect everybody else
to do the right thing and I get very, very mad
when people don't do the right thing.
I want to slap people sometimes, but I don't.
I love cats, and I don't want cats to be poisoned,
or to be, you know, shot or trapped,
and whatever done to it.
It's not their fault why they're out there right now.
Something has to be done.
So, I started my own organization
called Cat Trap,
and we believe in the program TNR,
trap, neuter, and return.
After we bring them to the vet, we put them back out
where we got them from, into the colonies.
Because they're all together, they're all like family.
♪
I think the first time we did any trapping was like 15 cats.
That was, like, wow, it was quite amazing,
and then it just snowballed after that.
I wanna help people.
So, my name is out there.
I like to knock on doors, I like to talk to people.
Well, I mean, I have a nice piece of property here,
and I got cats pooping all over it.
I got a cute little dog, likes to roll in it,
and I don't think it's right.
I pay high taxes, and I expect some stuff cleaned up,
and they're not doing it.
I called the city and said, "What are you gonna do
with these cats?"
They turned around, told me they have a bylaw for dogs
but not for cats.
I told them, "Bullshit,” and hung up.
We found 'em dead on the lawn right there,
some babies and that.
We found some babies over there on the track line.
He's found some dead ones on his property over there.
It's too bad, you know, just cats all over.
It's frustrating.
I've dealt with neighbors fighting with each other.
That's not good, you don't wanna fight with your neighbor
over something like that.
It's not the cats' fault, it's our fault.
Let's take responsibility now.
♪
That's okay.
Hear that noise, it's okay, you're okay.
So, Mellissa, she's awesome, I call her my other daughter.
I do.
She's a hard, hard worker.
She's doing her rescue all on her own.
Plus, she works.
She just loves animals, it's just DNA.
Yeah.
We don't want fleas on your face.
(water streaming)
I've rescued several litters from the dump,
and they call me, "Can you come pick up these kittens?"
Or, "Can I bring them to you?"
♪
My name's Mellissa, I run Tiny But Mighty Kitten Rescue,
and I save kittens.
Cats specifically, I mean, at least in Cornwall,
the city doesn't fund to help them,
and a lot of people find that the cats are disposable.
Kitten gets old, not as cute,
put them outside, they're not fixed.
What do you think happens?
I get a lot of messages, a minimum of 5 per day of,
"Can you take this kitten I found?"
So, if I have space, I can take them.
First, get them spayed, neutered, vaccinated,
dewormed, micro chipped,
and then I find families for them.
♪
I don't have a clue how many litters I've saved.
I lost track.
(meowing)
♪
(flags flapping)
♪
There has always been a large number of cats
in this area, and it's primarily due to
the lack of spaying and neutering.
My name's Bonnie Bishop, and I'm an associate director
with the Ontario SPCA.
♪
We call ourselves here an animal shelter,
and we have 12 of them across the province of Ontario.
♪
(indistinct remarks)
In this community, for example, we have been inundated
with a large number of cats for many years.
We represent 30 percent of the intake of cats
in the province of Ontario.
(dogs barking)
We have limited cage space here, and we've had days where people
have shown up with up to as many as 20 cats,
and think that we can take those animals in
on that given day.
Here in Cornwall, there's no program currently
that the city runs to pick up stray cats,
so the public literally picks them up
and brings them in to us.
We talk to a lot of people that come in,
and when we had a wait list, say, "Ah, just gonna go
dump it somewhere."
Not acceptable, it's not acceptable to dump an animal.
Those animals, they become prey for something else.
And also, they are now being forced to hunt
and fend for themselves in a way that they've never
had to do before.
No, I believe cats should be indoors.
(meowing)
(purring)
♪
The domestic cats that we have in our homes,
we see them in our house as being this love able,
adorable creature, and then we put them outside.
They engage in very similar behaviors
to what wild cats would do.
- I keep getting this cat. -Yeah.
That's a new one.
My name is Elizabeth Gow,
and I study what cats do when we can't find them,
and I do that using a variety
of different specialized cameras.
(photos snapping)
♪
They can get up to all kinds of mayhem.
They can cross busy roads.
They can go into sewer drains,
climb trees, stalk,
kill animals.
And so, on one of the concerns with cats is their impacts
on biodiversity.
They are not from here, and when they're outside,
they are technically an invasive species.
They engage in very similar behaviors
to what wild cats would do.
So, they will hunt animals when they find them.
(cat snarling)
(bird crying)
(snarling)
♪
(rustling)
It's a golden crowned king let.
This tiny little one here.
♪
So, and here is a little warbler,
the northern perulla.
It's got a little golden chest here.
Well, cats will eat just about any bird
they can get near.
Brown creeper,
so named 'cause it goes up the tree trunk.
A woodpecker.
In Canada alone, about 250 million,
250 million birds are killed every year
by domestic cats.
♪
I'm Bridget Stutchbury, my specialty is studying
migratory songbirds to understand
why their populations are declining
and what we can do to help them.
(birds chirping)
Birds are what I call blue collar workers.
They move seeds around,
they eat insects, and if they weren't eating the insects,
the insects' populations are gonna explode
and damage the trees.
And, so, when you take, like, a really important player
in an ecosystem, and just take it out altogether,
then things are going to change in that ecosystem.
The forest won't be as healthy,
the air won't be as clean.
You can have this huge cascading effect.
(thudding)
(bird chirping)
Well, it's not simply a matter of there being no birds.
Cats certainly hunt native small mammal species.
So, these are native mice, chipmunks, small rodents,
rabbits, all kinds of small animals.
They also can transmit diseases.
One is feline leukemia virus.
So, they might be able to transfer into
wild cat populations.
These are cougars, and bobcats, and lynx.
But, I don't think that people are really paying attention
to the problem.
The impacts of cats are really, really massive.
We need to not be losing species
to maintain our own health as humans.
♪
I am part of the Canadian task force.
We're trying to find the best solutions
to solve this cat problem that we have.
The first step in any sort of management undertaking
is to know, well, where is the problem?
♪
There's typically more cats in areas
where there's more poverty.
People don't tend to spay and neuter their cats
when they can't afford it.
And also are more likely to put their cats outside.
And if you think of a cat produces anywhere from
2 to upwards of 18 offspring,
that's a lot of cats and kittens.
(meowing)
♪
(meowing)
♪
(beeping)
♪
(beeping)
(meowing)
♪
(whirring)
(water streaming)
(clinking)
(whirring)
♪
(meowing)
♪
I actually learned by watching videos online,
for the most part.
I had my vet train me in certain things.
Besides that, though, I learned it all online.
♪
(meowing)
You ready, babe?
Here you go, love, here, no.
♪
These guys were orphaned at 2 weeks old.
(slurping)
They were actually in decent shape,
but usually they don't come in great shape when I get them.
(purring)
Are you purring?
Good boy.
She's Maisie, the only girl.
There's Flynn.
Nicky, and the big one, Logan.
And Jackson.
Is that you?
(kissing)
Crazy boy.
(zipping)
Who's next?
I only need one kid.
Oh, one kid.
Watch out.
Oh.
I mean, it's nonstop.
I bottle feed every four hours right now,
so it's never ending.
Literally never ending.
And I even do this while I am supposed to be working.
Oh.
I love it for the most part.
Sometimes it's stressful, like when they
aspirate on their milk,
or if there 's a medical problem.
But, when they're healthy like this,
it's pretty easy.
(purring)
What do you want?
You already ate.
♪
When they leave, it's, like, really heartbreaking,
but ultimately, I guess, worth it
because they find forever homes.
♪
You get attached, that's for sure.
Are you done?
Geez,
that was so much.
Okay, you're done.
♪
(meowing)
♪
(purring)
(birds chirping)
♪
Feral cats are certainly something
myself as an ecologist are concerned about,
because they will hunt many, many animals a day,
because they have to eat them
much, much more than an owned cat.
No, I don't think there is sort of
a one-size-fits-all solution to try to reduce
the number of cats that are not owned that run wild,
the stray and feral cats.
There's a few different strategies,
one being euthanasia.
Trap, neuter, release, or TNR,
and that involves capturing cats and neutering them,
so they can't reproduce, vaccinating them,
and then returning them.
(purring)
(birds chirping)
A lot of people in Cornwall want to put them down,
they want to euthanize.
I don't agree with that.
(whirring)
♪
Even though there's only two of us, it didn't matter.
We had signs, we walked in.
We were sort of making a lot of noise,
so then all of the media came out started to talk to us
because we had our signs, and we had the kitten.
They wanted to know, "Why are you here?"
-You know? -And, "Why are you bringing
-a kitten?" -Yeah, so we continued
-every two weeks. -Yep.
Whenever we did protest we had like 300 comments,
250 probably against us.
So, that means they're not really thinking
outside of the box.
I want people to think outside the box.
♪
Will they back down? Will they support us?
Time will tell.
But, if they don't, if they say, "Oh, okay, no,
we don't have the money," whatever, we will continue
what we have been doing.
We are not gonna let this go
until there is money in the budget.
-Agree? I agree. -Agreed.
Yeah.
(whirring)
There are some people in any community of course
who would say, well, you know, hate to put it this way,
but, "Shoot them."
We've moved beyond that, I'm sorry.
My name is Christopher Rogers, I am the supervisor
by-law enforcement for the city of Cornwall.
♪
It's easy to assess that
this is something unique to this community.
It is not.
The other municipalities have set up programs,
usually subsidized programs, so let's be real,
it's about money.
♪
Calgary is celebrated as a prime example
of what it takes to manage
and stabilize cat populations.
They have ample resources.
They're a rich city.
We are not Calgary.
(whirring)
Simply not a matter of helping to support TNR programs.
It comes down to, I believe, financial ability.
(engine puttering)
Cornwall was formerly a heavy industrial town.
That is no more.
Those very-well-paying jobs are gone.
(beeping)
And again, we're talking about setting aside
fair chunks of change to deal with cats,
when there are people in this city
who have to decide whether they want
to pay the rent or eat.
(chewing)
(clinking)
(whirring)
(clicking)
♪
(thudding)
(clinking)
So, for my rescue, people can drop off empties and donations,
which helps pay the vet bills.
(clinking)
Big ones are worth 20 cents.
Small ones are worth 10 cents.
So, every bit helps.
And, um, yeah, cash them in.
(clinking)
♪
It costs a lot to run a rescue when you're one person
doing it yourself.
But, here we are.
I mean, hopefully this city steps up
and helps people like me
who are trying to do their part, I guess.
♪
I don't know what it is, but it's half rewarding
and half devastating.
So, I do rescue and I go home.
Like, I don't have a social life or anything,
So, kittens.
(rattling)
(whirring)
She's a fighter, she's a big fighter.
She's like, what, 27 maybe.
I don't think I was that much of a fighter at that age.
I'm learning, as she's learning, that we have one fight.
That's to help the cats in Cornwall.
♪
The problem started in East End.
Low income area unfortunately.
And if they're not fixed, you're gonna have kittens,
and kittens, kittens-- that's the problem.
(meowing)
Some people still aren't getting it,
which is very maddening to us.
And we see things more than the councilors,
like, they have no idea.
You know, a couple of them said, "Well, it's not
in my neighborhood," but if you don't fix
the problem now, it will be in your neighborhood.
So, whenever it all came about with the cats,
I thought to myself, "How can I make people talk?
How can I make people talk?"
♪
I'm gonna run.
I'm gonna run for municipal election.
I had one sign.
This is my one election sign right here.
And I put the sign all over,
and then people will think, "Oh, my God,
she has all these signs"-- no, I only had one sign, okay.
-You ready? -There we go.
Easy come, easy go.
♪
And I had one ad in the newspaper,
which was amazing, because usually
the people would have a picture of their face, you know.
No, no, not me, I had a picture of a bloody cat in a trap.
♪
As I said, a vote for me was a vote for the cats.
Got a couple emails saying, "Oh, my God, I can't believe
you're running just on this platform,”
and I said, "Yes, yes, I am."
But, that was fine, you're gonna
have haters everywhere.
You just deal with 'em.
♪
Time to go find out the election results.
♪
We're doing well, we are.
I wanted 400.
This is awesome.
I know I'm not gonna get in.
I knew that from the beginning, but this is
an awareness campaign, and this is where we're at.
So, we were looking at the screen, Mellissa and I,
and, "Oh, my God, it's going up."
♪
I was hoping maybe for 500 votes,
and I got 1,532 votes
all over my one platform.
So, that was pretty good, got people talking.
♪
Well, there should be a program where they at least
capture them and spay or neuter them,
and, uh, you know, but they don't.
Seems like it's a never-ending circle
for years and years, and honestly,
I think that by now it would change
much more than this.
-That's minor. - I think there's a lot
more important things to be looking at
than cats.
Well, my way of looking at them is,
they're better to put them to sleep
than letting 'em die cruelly
Last time it was pigeons, four years ago,
and now it's cats, so we have all nature,
creatures we have to deal with.
If you own a cat, they should be in the house,
and you should take them to the vet regularly.
But, a lot of people don't think that way,
you know, they believe, eh, should be outside,
and they don't really care for them.
♪
Well, I'd like for the city to be involved in it
and get them fixed.
Right now they're doing nothing at all.
It's just going out of control.
They wanna talk about feral cats,
talk--okay, talk about bugs.
Do you think Cornwall has a problem with cats?
No, I would say we have a problem with people.
♪
They'll end up staying in that pile of a mess over there.
Unwanted cats.
So, we put food and water,
because I can't let them starve.
♪
When I look into their eyes, it's like I feel like
I can see their soul, and I feel like
their loneliness or their pain,
and I just--I just have to help.
Typically invasive species are viewed as being
quite harmful.
But, unfortunately, how we view cats
is much different 'cause our deep connection
with our pets.
It's very easy for me to say, "Go keep your cat inside."
But, the reality is that that's not always easy.
We're working with human behavior,
and we're also working with cat behavior,
and that's what makes them a very complicated
and complex conservation issue.
In neighborhoods where people don't have a lot of money,
these neighborhoods may benefit from
subsidized spay and neuter,
and also education campaigns that are targeted
in those neighborhoods that can help reduce
the number of cats that are being thrown outside.
♪
(meowing)
♪
(whirring)
The neighbors here next door
were furious about the cats.
Didn't want me feeding 'em, nothing,
and they eventually had to move away.
It was the fact that a pair of kittens
came along and were looking for food,
and then I had five kittens come along looking for food,
and I fed them.
That's how it started.
♪
Twice a day that I come down with a dish
of dry and wet food.
♪
I'm not sure if it's a problem of cats
or a problem of mice.
They're not around, there's more mice.
There's even a rat showed up here.
I mean, I don't particularly want them in my home,
so having the cats around
is part of life.
(birds chirping)
(rustling)
Everyone's doing really well.
They all had their surgeries and are recovered
so they can go to their forever homes.
Hey, babes.
So, everyone's, like, a full-on kitten now.
Proper kitten, no more bottles.
Jackson took the longest.
He was still eight weeks old and on a bottle.
He ended up with almost 60,000 Likes
on his little photo, SO my page blew up
after that a little bit.
(ticking)
They're really easy going because they're used to people.
I mean, that's all they know, right?
They didn't have a cat mom.
Babe, my new pants.
My new pants, love.
And they just are obsessed with everybody.
Hey, buddy.
You like people, eh?
No.
No thanks, no thanks, no thanks.
(rustling)
(chimes dinging)
Have they been around for a long time?
I've been looking after these guys
for two months.
A man moved in next door to a lady
that was helping feed a colony.
And within 24 hours of him being there,
he put poison in the water.
Two moms and two litters were found dead
all over the backyard.
I think there's probably about eight cats went down.
Within days, they turned up,
and they were just little kittens.
There was kittens found dead on the road.
There was one cat decapitated by this man.
The cats scattered in all directions,
and they came this way.
So, that's why I inherited these little guys.
So, that's Guimauve,
and the other little boy,
that's George.
Oh, my God, he's so cute.
So, how many cats do you think are actually around here then?
I usually have six guaranteed.
(meowing)
You wanna just come with me for a second?
I'll show you.
Lisa, because she's not part of this, is staying away.
-Really? -Well, she doesn't wanna
come in here, so I brought a crate out
and put straw inside.
But, she keeps having lots of kittens.
She needs to be caught.
-Oh. -Last winter--
-Mellissa? -Yeah?
-She ate her babies. -Ate them?
I was like, "I didn't know cats did that."
It's gonna be an interesting winter.
Mhm.
(bird cawing)
♪
The cats are dying.
A lot of them do freeze,
and they're also starving.
I believe tonight is gonna be -11,
and that's pretty cold.
So, we're gonna be doing some trapping
in the next couple of days.
We put the traps out with some food,
and a lot of times we just wait around.
So, hopefully we have five to six cats
tomorrow morning, and going to the vet.
(whirring)
♪
-Morning. -Good morning.
How are you? You're supposed to be sleeping.
I know.
Here we go.
Oh, smaller, yes.
Hey, there he is.
Yes, hello.
-Okay, got it? -Yeah.
You take--you take this one.
-Okay. -Okay?
Maarten and I, we're the only two people in Cornwall
that do the trapping.
75 cats over 3 years, which is quite good.
Maarten, strong willed, hard head.
Loves animals for sure.
He's a good friend.
We both love cats, and we have to do
what we have to do.
(indistinct remarks)
But, I've been dealing with Lynda for five years,
so she knows what's going on.
-Probably 4:00. -Okay, I'll be here.
Okay, thanks, talk to you later.
-Appreciate it. -Bye.
♪
(thudding)
Here in Cornwall the vet charges way too much money.
So, that's why we go to Saint-Zotique, Quebec.
So, the prices in Saint-Zotique are about $130 for a male,
and $155 for a female.
To get a cat spayed or neutered in Cornwall is $500.
♪
(meowing)
♪
(clicking)
♪
We're gonna take the traps in first, right?
-Yeah. -Yeah, we'll come back
for the carriers.
♪
Right, big fella?
Not happy, eh?
This ones a scared one.
Here, don't worry, nobody's gonna hurt ya.
You're gonna be fine.
-Hello, good morning. -How are you?
Good, how are you?
(speaking French)
♪
So, from here, Jen takes 'em into that room,
checks them over and everything.
(creaking)
(phone ringing)
-How many traps am I paying for? -Three.
-Three, yep. -Three traps?
I was able to raise the funds through my supporters
for the three or four that are getting done today.
(meowing)
I have to constantly ask people for money,
which I really hate doing.
But, if I don't ask for help, then we don't make progress.
(buzzing)
We need a better plan, we have tons of kittens being born,
tons of ferals reproducing, like, it's just never ending.
(humming)
There's like so many of them dying outside, the cats,
they're dying outside.
(buzzing)
(phone ringing)
(beeping)
(speaking French)
(clinking)
(beeping)
My name is Lousie Lavallé.
I'm a veterinarian who does surgeries,
principally spaying and neutering for shelter cats,
community cats, people with low income.
(indistinct remarks)
♪
I would like municipalities or governments
having regulations, so every animal that is sold
in a pet store or from breeders are fixed.
Because, me, I'm doing sterilization.
But, the problem, I'm always doing sterilization.
I want this to decrease.
But, if there is always animals coming
that are not sterilized.
(beeping)
It's like when you have a problem
with your water and your tap.
The water is running over the sink on your floor.
You're gonna get a towel to remove all the water.
But, you're gonna close the tap first, okay.
That's the same thing for the cats.
Somebody has to close the tap.
(beeping)
♪
(chimes dinging)
(indistinct remarks)
Yeah, that's the one.
Okay, you.
-Thank you, Lynda. -You're welcome, thank you.
(meowing)
(chirping)
Wow, that's fascinating.
♪
The TNR cats always come together in a group.
♪
(meowing)
♪
Oh, that's, uh, Guimauve.
(meowing)
The water's frozen.
He's pulling the water bowl towards him.
He's trying to break the ice.
♪
He's pretty determined to get a drink.
♪
He's using his head.
♪
That's hilarious.
Guimauve, he's very, very curious,
and he's the one I'm most concerned about in the summer.
He's going to get himself in trouble.
♪
Maybe if people could see these movies of them,
they wouldn't be so anxious, you know, to hurt them,
poison them, trap them.
Like the guy that poisoned all the cats on the street.
(cat mewing)
When people like me are feeding the feral cats,
they're no longer going into the garbage.
There's no fights on the street.
But still, people don't want the cats.
♪
I don't know why he's chubby like that,
but he's got a real cute, lovable character.
♪
He would have made a good pet.
♪
The cats are all over.
I am finding out more and more from other people
that they are having problems as well
and they are feeding ten cats or more.
I am thinking, okay, how many houses,
how many people are doing this?
I can't save them all.
As of three weeks ago,
we were about 5,000 still in debt
and that's a lot of money.
That's crazy.
The city of Cornwall. It's just frustrating.
It takes so friggin' long to get anywhere.
Which, I get, like, it's not their priority,
but...the kittens are coming.
Truly, I think they're ignoring us right now.
(telephone ringing)
You have reached the building and bylaw department.
If you are calling to schedule an inspection
or to make a bylaw complaint,
please leave me a message and I'll call you back.
Thank you.
(dial tone)
♪
(hum of passing traffic)
We're both getting fed up.
Like it's time to get the money into the budget.
Like, don't fool around with us anymore, we're done.
♪
Next week is Christmas,
and I'm thinking about the bloody cats.
Minus twenty or whatever.
That kills me, it really does.
So you sort of feel defeated in a way.
But you can't let it get you down,
you gotta keep on going.
I got hooked up with a woman named Brigit
and I had no idea,
Lynda lives like one minute away around the corner.
So close, we're talking like another 10 cats in one house.
Her and her husband, they're feeding the cats
but they're also multiplying because they can't afford
to spay or neuter them.
We should have a meeting one night, we should all
get together and just try and get other people involved.
I want to find out if there's more houses like this.
-I really, really do. -I'm sure there is
because I've heard rumors and neighbors talk.
So there's a couple of people down the street here
who are feeding and I want to find out who it is.
There's a cat right there, there's a cat right there,
right across the street.
There's lots of cats here.
I've left three traps at Brigit's,
gone over everything with her,
and hopefully all goes well.
♪
(crow cawing)
♪
My name is Brigit Lueck
and I am just recently from Vancouver.
Oh my God.
I came here and I'm like, "What's up with all the cats?
They're, like, everywhere."
Okay.
♪
Here, there is no organized strategy
around the feral cats.
A lot of people are pretty overwhelmed.
Like, that's kind of what happened with us too
when we came here.
Can you get that one?
We just couldn't, you know,
neuter like 12 cats that are coming through, right?
So it's an overwhelming situation at the moment.
-How are you? -Hello.
Hey, how are you?
It's okay. You have a pretty tail too, eh?
Different colors. Different colors.
Okay.
(hum of passing traffic)
He's really heavy.
I think it's a male just by the size of his face
and of his neck.
They develop more muscle when they are male
because of the testosterone.
Of course, he's still stressed,
but we're going to try to have him come here.
Come, come.
-(cat hisses) -Okay.
(hisses)
♪
(clippers buzzing)
♪
(cat meowing)
Okay.
Ready? Hold on.
♪
Perfect.
Happy.
Great.
Okay. Ohh.
♪
(crows cawing)
Are you alert? I put a little bit of food here
just to see if she'd eat and she did eat.
So she's alert, and I think ready to go.
♪
(cat mewling)
♪
(cat yowling)
Okay. This one is a little bit upset.
That's also a good sign because she's a fighter, obviously.
(cat yowling)
♪
(cat yowling)
You ready, pumpkin?
(bird cawing)
♪
Taking his time, actually.
♪
(crunching)
(bird chittering)
♪
That's it.
Three trapped, three released.
♪
Right now, I don't think science has really figured out
what is best in all situations.
It's hard to say if trap-neuter-release
is actually effective at reducing cat populations.
We might reduce the original number of cats
that were in a trap-neuter-release colony,
but you can still have cats come into that colony
from other areas.
For it to be effective, it would need to be continuous.
Every cat that comes into that population,
we'd need to make sure that it is spayed or neutered.
♪
(soft lapping)
(soft mewing)
(bell jingling)
Boys, boys.
You're such bad boys, stop.
♪
(cats mewing, chittering)
♪
They all have homes, we're just waiting to figure out
when the families can arrange for me to drop them off.
I just prefer to see where they're going
because it makes me feel a little bit better
when they leave me.
So, yeah, I always drop them off no matter how far it is.
Get back down.
(she laughs)
Monkey, that's why we don't open the window.
Today, he is going to go to his forever home, unfortunately.
Well, I mean, it's bittersweet.
It's happy because he's gonna have more space
and a family who can give him more attention.
But it's always bittersweet when they leave.
(soft purring)
♪
Ready to go, bud?
(meowing)
♪
(soft meowing)
♪
Jackson must wonder what's going on today.
-Hello! -Go see!
Let him go.
What's that?
Just let him do his thing, honey.
Are you purring, love bug?
(meowing)
♪
Okay, we have microchip information.
So you send it back to them with your information
so that it changes over to you instead of me.
Okay.
This is his vaccination record.
Okay.
And it does say he's due for his next one,
so you've made that appointment.
Yup.
So then when I go to my November 11th appointment,
I'll just bring that and that's...
You can.
...to show them what he's had done, right?
Okay, okay. Perfect.
-Easy enough. -Mm-hm.
That's it.
Your mama's going, your mama, she going?
Yeah.
-Yeah. -He might be getting sleepy.
You need to give him a big squeeze and a big hug.
Bye, babe.
Say, you did a good job, Mama.
Hey? Look at you.
♪
Yeah.
Aww.
♪
How are you feeling right now?
Fine, actually, because they're such great people
that it makes it just, like, easy.
♪
(rumble of car and passing traffic)
(bird cawing)
♪
The TNR was wonderful,
but they're collecting friends.
♪
(cat mews)
♪
(cat mewing)
♪
(food rattling in can)
♪
I don't mind the ones that I was made responsible for,
the ones that got TNR'd.
It's that now I'm seeing multiple cats
that I haven't seen before
and I don't know how they communicate with each other,
how they all end up understanding that that house
has two little females that are not fixed
and there's males coming from blocks away
to mate with the cats.
I mean, all you need is two cats out, right?
One male, one female, and off we go again.
♪
And it's going to be a real issue with neighbors.
Areal issue.
There's going to be some very unhappy neighbors.
I'm afraid for the cats in the summer,
like I can't protect them.
♪
(crow cawing)
♪
Australia is taking drastic measures
to control its cat population.
Government officials are launching a campaign
to kill more than two million cats.
Ecologists say feral cats are responsible for the extinctions
of more than two dozen native Australian species.
What to do with all these stray cats
has long been a problem here.
Japan has vowed to control the wild cat problem
in time for the Olympic Games.
(announcer speaking in French)
Cats are an invasive species,
so bad, they're killing billions of animals a year.
♪
It's an instinct in cats
when they see something small move along in front of them
they just have to go for it.
It's not the cats' fault at all.
♪
I'm Hannah Lockwood and I research
the impact of domestic cats on prey populations.
So, this is a cat skull.
First, you'll notice these huge eyes
which gives them great depth perception for stalking
and pouncing on prey.
They also have a separate organ
which is located behind the retina,
and that bounces light back through the retina and back out.
And that's why you get the eye shine
if you ever take a photo of a cat with the flash on.
This is a bank vole skull,
and it would get it just straight by the neck
and eat it pretty much whole
and then deliver a killing bite with their sharp teeth.
♪
So that's the cat skull.
(car horn honks)
The issue of there being cats in the environment
is one of the few, I think,
solvable environmental issues that we have.
And so it's going to be up to us,
and that includes cat owners,
it's going to include our shelter systems,
it's going to include governments as well.
We all generally want the same thing.
We want what's best for cats.
We want to reduce the number of cats that are outside,
and we want to reduce the impacts
that they have on the environment.
So, something's happened here. It looks like the cat p--
Oop, yeah, it did.
There's a chipmunk in its mouth.
And it's dropped the chipmunk now.
So, there's a few things we're hoping to do with this work
and maybe there's guidelines
that we can come about from this study
that can help cat owners.
If they do feel they have to put their cat outside,
we can provide some guidelines on what's best
for their cat.
-Hey, come on in. -Hello, how are you?
Good, come on in.
Okay, I'll show you two videos here.
♪
So, I think he's just in your yard.
Maybe he's in someone else's yard.
You see his head.
He's doing something, he just caught something.
-Oh, oh! -Mouse.
No! Little critter.
So that's in his jaws right now?
-That's in his jaws. -Oh man.
Oh my gosh!
Yeah, so he actually captured stuff.
♪
Look what you've done. Are you proud of yourself?
♪
So, when I talk to cat owners,
I try to talk about whether a cat
should belong inside or if it should be outside.
And certainly, we know that when cats are outside,
they get more exercise.
But the risk to the cat of being outside, in my opinion,
is far greater than those benefits.
And what cat owners really care about
is their cats and their cats' well being.
♪
Comin' out, bud?
(whistles)
♪
Well, I think the public well understands
that cats sometimes kill other animals.
I mean, they're predators
and that's what they're designed to do,
and cats are not malicious--
Or maybe they are in some cases--
But, again, the problem is, there are just so many cats,
uh, and they're so good at what they do,
that, uh, literally, millions of birds
are being killed every year and they can least afford it.
We need to help these populations that are declining
because they're really integral to our forest
and grassland ecosystems.
A healthy nature.
And somebody's cat might bring back one bird
every couple of weeks and they think,
"Well, that's too bad. Bad kitty."
It's not really a problem
until you count up how many cats there are.
And with millions of cats in Canada, that adds up.
That makes a huge difference.
That's okay. Come on.
(mewing)
Yes, baby. Hi.
Yes.
I lost three babies recently.
One just never grew, he was like newborn size at two weeks old.
And the other one, she was born without a bladder.
So they had to euthanize her right there.
She was only four weeks old.
♪
Look at your little faces.
(soft mewing)
Are you nursin' 'em?
I cry for a few days but then it's... move on,
"cause I still had other ones to save, so...
♪
These are my two foster babies, Indy and Ace.
They were being given away at four weeks old,
which is obviously too young, so I took them.
♪
-They are doing fine? -They're doing good.
I had antibiotics ready but I didn't need it.
Okay, good.
♪
-You did a good job. -Thank you.
-They are pretty big. -Yup.
So... Okay, two pounds and a quarter.
♪
-She didn't even know. -No, no, no.
♪
Mellissa, she's well organized.
♪
It's not everybody that can deal with orphans.
♪
Giving is good, giving your time with the animal is good,
but you have to realize that you have
a certain limit because...
you can get lost.
(cats meowing)
♪
Okay, so this is both certificates.
-Okay, thank you. -You're welcome.
♪
Most of us see a roaming cat as a nuisance
that defecates in our garden bed,
it mates at one o'clock in the morning
in the middle of the street, that's the level of our concern.
But cats do impact negatively on our environment.
The only humane way to deal with the cat population
is through spay and neutering them.
Without it, it's totally uncontrolled.
And my feeling was
that people expected something to be done about it.
So we conducted a survey basically saying,
what do you think about it, what a bylaw might look like?
♪
One of the leading questions, of course, was
do you think we have a cat overpopulation problem
in Cornwall and that something needs to be done about it?
Bestow ownership on individuals,
require that all cats be kept indoors unless supervised,
limit the number of cats in the household to two.
Very important, of course, to have community input.
♪
We've been affected by it.
It's quite an ongoing issue.
It's getting out of control, that's for sure.
We have to do something about it.
♪
We were simply surprised at the level of response
to a cat problem.
♪
This is not my neighbor's problem,
this is not my problem,
this is the entire community's problem
and it's not going to go away.
We have to accept that something has to be done about it
and there's probably going to be a cost to that.
What I recommended to council is that in the 2020 budget
we allocate $40,000 to subsidizing the cost
of spay and neutering.
That's a start.
♪
The bylaw that Chris wants to try and get through,
"If you feed it, you own it,"
that is scaring people.
I don't want people to be scared
and I don't want people to say,
"Oh Lord, there's a cat out there,
we can't be responsible for it."
♪
The fact that somebody has enough charity
to give an animal a little better chance to survive
means you own them is a strange one,
as far as I'm concerned.
It goes along with the idea that if you give somebody some money
when they're begging that you own that person.
Makes just as much sense.
♪
People like Lynda, she's going to take care of them,
and even if the bylaw passes many people are still going to.
They don't want to see the cats suffer,
so I don't blame them.
Simply feeding a cat, absolutely, that's important.
But if that cat is not spayed and neutered,
it's fueling a cat population
that we're trying to get under control.
I should just put it down here.
(bird chirping)
(hum of passing traffic)
♪
The city of Cornwall could become
the first municipality in Ontario
to require cats to be kept indoors.
City staff are proposing a cat bylaw
with a number of suggestions:
all cats must be spayed and neutered,
felines must be kept indoors,
and most extreme, anybody who feeds a stray cat
legally becomes its owner.
But that report came out in May and nothing has happened since.
(giggling)
You feel sleepy?
(kittens mewing)
We've gone through a whole kitten season
and there's still no money in the budget,
so it is frustrating.
There's the purring. Good girl.
But hopefully moving forward,
there will be more help for kittens like them
because I can't keep up.
(mewing)
(hum of passing traffic)
How are the cats?
♪
The weather's getting better,
they were wandering a little bit more.
Then Guimauve disappeared.
♪
He was here, he ate his evening meal with the rest of them.
Spencer and Guimave, I have a picture
of the two of them snuggled up together
and then that was it, Guimauve didn't come back.
♪
I know he's not lost in the area
because he had such a strong tie to that porch.
And I think Guimauve, his stomach told him where to go
and a trap that's set will have food.
♪
I did some looking around.
There's three neighbors that have traps here.
♪
When I ask them, they won't answer,
so that's difficult, knowing that somebody probably
has done something.
♪
My neighbors were aware what I was doing.
♪
There's a lot of people that just aren't on board.
It was really tragic.
♪
Spencer spent about three or four days wandering around,
crying, looking for Guimauve,
they were really close.
♪
They have souls.
They can't think like humans, but they have souls.
So you do feel responsible,
that it was my duty to keep them safe.
But there's no boundaries for feral cats.
♪
(wind blowing, birds chirping)
♪
It's pretty worldwide now.
I have people from all over following, which is crazy.
♪
If nobody ever talked about it, we wouldn't make progress.
So, I'm glad that people are starting to realize
that we have a problem
and they're going to have to do something.
♪
(wind blowing)
(thunder rumbling)
-I'm hot. -Anybody gonna come and join us?
(thunder rumbling)
Okay, let's move-- wanna move over,
so we're not blocking.
Stand right in front of the doorway.
Is your sign waterproof?
I have no idea.
♪
(car horn honks, woman yells)
Hey, maybe...
We have people.
Over there.
(car horns honking)
I don't know them.
-Are they with us? -Yeah.
-Really? - I think so.
Thank you!
(car horns honking)
♪
(car horns honking, people cheering)
Hi, I'm Mellissa. Nice to meet you.
-Hi, Mellissa. -Thanks for coming, guys.
You're so welcome.
-Love all your signs. -Thank you!
-Very nice, wow. -Yours are waterproof.
(laughter)
Thanks so much for everything you do, by the way.
I follow the page like a crazy person.
(overlapping chatter)
-This is good. - I know, I wanna get a picture.
(car horns honking, cheering)
Let's get started. Sorry for the delay.
It's nice to have a full council chamber.
The recommendation is that council
implement a cat control bylaw
vitally supported by funding,
in support of a five-year timeline
in which all owned cats are to be desexed.
Councillor Grant, you're seconding.
Debate.
So, Your Worship,
I'm not completely convinced we can necessarily implement
all these regulations.
How do we realistically expect to enforce
some of these provisions?
I mean, to say, "All cats have to be kept indoors."
Well, if there's a random cat wandering the neighborhood,
how do we know who officially owns that cat?
Are we going to give this person a ticket?
Through you, Madam Mayor, that's why it's vital
that cats be licensed.
So, hopefully, that cat that is roaming
can be linked to its owner by virtue of a tag.
Okay, thank you.
Councillor Bergeron and then Councillor Grant.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
So, when you say cats must be kept inside,
as long as they were controlled in their own yard,
would you accept that, or...
So, it's really about ensuring that once a cat is outside
that it's supervised.
Yes, yeah.
One thing I want to think about is long term
and if everybody's religious in this
we won't have a cat problem because we won't have any cats.
(crowd murmuring)
When you think about it, so, I mean...
Through you, Madam Mayor, no bylaw
is a hundred percent enforceable.
There's a speed limit out here, in front of this building,
it's 50 kilometers an hour.
Uh, I'm sure if I asked everyone in this room
if they have exceeded that 50 miles an hour,
if they were honest, they'd say yes.
Bylaws, they build expectation
and certainly, there's that carrot that says,
"Oh, if you don't live up to that expectation,
there could be punitive repercussions."
I live in the West End, and I don't--
We don't have a roaming cat problem, that I know.
Yes, you do. Yes, you do.
Is there an area in town that's more concentrated
and is more concerned where this bylaw would really be effective?
This has been going on since,
I think I was in council 15 years ago
and we were talking about feral cats then.
Something has to be done,
and we're going to do it tonight.
So I'm going to call the vote.
All in favor?
(crowd murmuring)
Carried.
Thank you.
(applause, cheering)
(chatter)
We did it!
-We did it. -We did it.
-So far. -Yeah.
We still have progress to make.
We can't, there's no way it's going backwards now.
No, there's just no way.
They can't now.
If it's a five-year plan, that's still really long.
That's a lot of kittens that could be born in five years.
But five years is still better than zero years.
Like, at least we're moving forward.
And finally, they're going to do something about it.
A lot of them don't agree on the "Feed it, you own it" bylaw,
which I don't either, but that's one of the problems.
We'll figure it out over the years and we'll iron it out.
♪
The lifespan of cats is much shorter
if you have them as outdoor cats,
and yet some cat owners still believe,
"My cat will be unhappy if it's indoors,
so I'd rather let it outside where it's dangerous."
♪
I mean, humans are smart,
but at the same time, they're very simpleminded
because it's an easy fix
to encourage people to keep their cats indoors.
It's harder to put the forest back.
♪
Mellissa Alepins and Mary Jane Proulx.
Extraordinary people,
extraordinarily compassionate, caring,
and, you know, not expecting any sort of acknowledgement for it.
Just doing it out of sheer compassion and caring.
After all, we domesticated these animals, right?
They can no longer look after themselves.
♪
I guess at this point, we're just waiting to see
when they're gonna actually make the money official
and then pass the bylaws.
I'll probably do this forever.
I love it, so in that sense, it's good that there's no end,
but it's really sad because these are generally orphans
that I take, so they don't have a mom.
And it took us, Mellissa and I, to fight this hard.
We had to have protests and we had to fight,
and I had to run for council.
Like run for council, me run for council? Come on.
♪
It pays to fight. It really does.
If you have a passion and if you believe
you're doing the right thing, do it.
♪
A cat can have thousands of babies
and then their babies have babies
and then their babies have babies.
It just never ends.
♪
Never ends.
♪
(cat meowing)
♪