To get this message across we have to look at statistics. I'm not a fan of numbers but these we will delve into speak for themselves. We will focus on financial year 2011/2012. To narrow it down further we will focus on HVCH home turf, the Hunter region. To shrink the numbers further we are looking only at council run pounds.
We have used the Publicly available Analysis of Council Data Collection for
Seizures of Cats and Dogs. Division of Local Government, NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet.
1158 cats across the Hunter ended up in council run pounds.
51 were released to owner.
28 were re homed/sold.
390 were released to re homing organisations such as ourselves.
655 were euthanized.
Yep you read that right a whopping 58% were killed, a high proportion of which would be young cats and kittens. With the pounds themselves only re homing 2% and organisations like ours managing to take on 35% .
HVCH usually has around 90 cats in care either on site or with our volunteer foster carers. Usually with a waiting list of over 20 cats waiting to come into care at any given time. Thats an awful lot of cats.
Now are you beginning to see why its so vitally important to desex? We must do what we can to reduce the number of animals, Re home from rescues or pounds and desex there are so many animals needing homes already. This applies to dogs as well. Support TNRR of unowned cats living in colonies That's Trap Neuter Release or re home
Desexing is also vital for maintaining their health, increasing their life span and preventing antisocial behaviour. If you are experiencing financial difficulty there are many subsidised desexing programmes available in NSW to help you meet these costs. Vist http://www.ndn.org.au/apply-for-low-cost-desexing.html
Our Mission To rescue and rehabilitate adult cats ready for rehoming. To save as many cats and kittens from death row in pounds as we can. To provide quality car for all our animals. To educate the public on the importance of desexing. To prioritise assisting with animals in our community. To support a community that supports us.
Friday, 24 January 2014
Thursday, 23 January 2014
Your Guide to getting a cat and the costs involved
One of our biggest challenges at Hunter Valley Cat Haven is educating people. It starts with someone getting the notion to get a pet. Ask yourselves to do you have the time and the money? The average Cat lives to around 15 years old but they can go on into there 20s. That's right that cute little kitty is gonna be part of your home for as long as if you had a kid.Although thankfully I've yet to have a cat post toast in the dvd player.
For the initial start up cost lets assume you have decided to do the right thing and re home a rescue Kitten. Hey your reading this after all.That tells me your a responsible good willed sort.
Your rescue cat (desexed Vaxed and microchipped) is going to cost $100 -$150
You are going to need a carrier to bring it home (The law in NSW states all animals must be secured in cars) $30
Food and water bowls $10
Litter tray$10
Toys $10
A cat bed is not essential but your new pal will appreciate it unless its a contrary sort that would rather you slept on the pet bed and it took the queen bed with ensuite $30
Council registration $40
Basic scratching post again not essential but your furniture will thank you,oh boy will your furniture thank you. Hey if your crafty you could even make your own! $20
So at the lower end we are looking at $250 However compare that with a "free" kitten. Factor in desexing at around $100 Microchipping at around $50 and vaccinations x 3 coming in around $150 and your "free" kitten suddenly cost you twice as much. Not to mention the running about getting it to the vet and hey it lacks the feel good factor of rehoming via a rescue.
People often think they can cut costs by not having their cat desexed and vaccinated and allowing them to roam. Yes it may save money in the short term but long term its likely to end up more costly. If you have a female chances are she will get pregnant. This gets expensive. An unvaccinated free roaming cat of either sex is more likely to pick up diseases and medical treatment can be costly. A free roaming cat is more likely to be attacked by a dog or hit by a car or unfortunately even an scrupulous person those vet emergencies are going to hit you in the pocket hard.
Weekly costs of owning a cat lets say
Food $10
Litter $8
worming /flea treatments $2.50
Insurance $3.80
around $24.30. I highly recommend having pet insurance! Then there is a cattery if you go away or maybe like us your lucky enough to have friends tomake use of your foxtel and aircon cat sit.
So you have the facts and decide you can do this. Yay go you, your awesome. Now lets consider the type of cat or kitten your going to re home. Do you lead busy lives? How often are you home? How much time can you devote? I asked myself all these questions and more before we got our rescue baby. I am a busy mum with 5 children including an active toddler. It would have been hard work to bring home a cute fluffy young kitten that requires a lot of attention. Kittens do scratch. Toddlers are rough. I'm potty training a toddler could I cope with a kitten that would likely still have accidents too?
I made the choice to re home a Juvenile or older cat. One that was big enough to get out of the way of my toddler when needed and unlike the toddler know that doing its buisness on my best rug wasnt the best idea. I had great plans I would choose a male tabby.
Heres what actually happened. I rang up and arranged to come look at older cats after been told they had cats of every colour variety. I didn't choose one. SHE the non tabby picked us. I'm told this happens so often! She in the space of a year has wormed her way into our hearts. She ignores her pet bed choosing to sleep with whoever of our family of seven is in favour and we seem to compete for this honour. Sometimes shes playful, sometimes shes a docile lap cat. What she is first and foremost is part of our family. She has taught the kids so much about responsibility. They fight over whose turn it is to feed her and argue over who is supposed to be doing the litter tray. She's better than a hot water bottle on cold winter nights. Oh and she eats spiders for that alone she is my BFF. Would I recommend re homing a rescue cat? Hell yeah.
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For the initial start up cost lets assume you have decided to do the right thing and re home a rescue Kitten. Hey your reading this after all.That tells me your a responsible good willed sort.
Your rescue cat (desexed Vaxed and microchipped) is going to cost $100 -$150
You are going to need a carrier to bring it home (The law in NSW states all animals must be secured in cars) $30
Food and water bowls $10
Litter tray$10
Toys $10
A cat bed is not essential but your new pal will appreciate it unless its a contrary sort that would rather you slept on the pet bed and it took the queen bed with ensuite $30
Council registration $40
Basic scratching post again not essential but your furniture will thank you,oh boy will your furniture thank you. Hey if your crafty you could even make your own! $20
So at the lower end we are looking at $250 However compare that with a "free" kitten. Factor in desexing at around $100 Microchipping at around $50 and vaccinations x 3 coming in around $150 and your "free" kitten suddenly cost you twice as much. Not to mention the running about getting it to the vet and hey it lacks the feel good factor of rehoming via a rescue.
People often think they can cut costs by not having their cat desexed and vaccinated and allowing them to roam. Yes it may save money in the short term but long term its likely to end up more costly. If you have a female chances are she will get pregnant. This gets expensive. An unvaccinated free roaming cat of either sex is more likely to pick up diseases and medical treatment can be costly. A free roaming cat is more likely to be attacked by a dog or hit by a car or unfortunately even an scrupulous person those vet emergencies are going to hit you in the pocket hard.
Weekly costs of owning a cat lets say
Food $10
Litter $8
worming /flea treatments $2.50
Insurance $3.80
around $24.30. I highly recommend having pet insurance! Then there is a cattery if you go away or maybe like us your lucky enough to have friends to
So you have the facts and decide you can do this. Yay go you, your awesome. Now lets consider the type of cat or kitten your going to re home. Do you lead busy lives? How often are you home? How much time can you devote? I asked myself all these questions and more before we got our rescue baby. I am a busy mum with 5 children including an active toddler. It would have been hard work to bring home a cute fluffy young kitten that requires a lot of attention. Kittens do scratch. Toddlers are rough. I'm potty training a toddler could I cope with a kitten that would likely still have accidents too?
I made the choice to re home a Juvenile or older cat. One that was big enough to get out of the way of my toddler when needed and unlike the toddler know that doing its buisness on my best rug wasnt the best idea. I had great plans I would choose a male tabby.
Heres what actually happened. I rang up and arranged to come look at older cats after been told they had cats of every colour variety. I didn't choose one. SHE the non tabby picked us. I'm told this happens so often! She in the space of a year has wormed her way into our hearts. She ignores her pet bed choosing to sleep with whoever of our family of seven is in favour and we seem to compete for this honour. Sometimes shes playful, sometimes shes a docile lap cat. What she is first and foremost is part of our family. She has taught the kids so much about responsibility. They fight over whose turn it is to feed her and argue over who is supposed to be doing the litter tray. She's better than a hot water bottle on cold winter nights. Oh and she eats spiders for that alone she is my BFF. Would I recommend re homing a rescue cat? Hell yeah.
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Cys story
Cys story is one from a little while ago but so moving I have decided It needed a blog post. This is the story snippet posted on our facebook page.
Did you see me this morning? I was the little kitten laying in the gutter in agony. It was raining, I was cold and wet, my eyeball was a mangled mess. I had giving up hope as the cars drove past and pedestrians tried not to look at me. I prepared to die, the pain was just to much. Then a kind lady bent down and with tears in her eyes picked me up. I was put in a cage with a warm blanket, then another lady in a car took me for a drive, she to had to wipe tears from her eyes. Now I'm waiting for emergency surgery, I've been rescued.
Did you see me this morning? I was the little kitten laying in the gutter in agony. It was raining, I was cold and wet, my eyeball was a mangled mess. I had giving up hope as the cars drove past and pedestrians tried not to look at me. I prepared to die, the pain was just to much. Then a kind lady bent down and with tears in her eyes picked me up. I was put in a cage with a warm blanket, then another lady in a car took me for a drive, she to had to wipe tears from her eyes. Now I'm waiting for emergency surgery, I've been rescued.
Today he is an energetic baby with a great attitude. Understandably he can still be a little hesitant until he knows you but loves pats and cuddles. He is now looking for his furrever home. Thanks to Jody who found him, Hunter Valley Cat Haven who saved him and Jo who did the two hourly feeds and meds to get this guy through and his carer Kerryn.
Tuesday, 21 January 2014
HVCH gets Blogging.
Hello and Miaow From Hunter Valley Cat Haven! We have just started this blog to share our work with a wider audience. We will use it to share the story of what we do and who we are are. We aim to feature stories on individual animals that come into our care and their journeys. We May ask for contributions from people that have adopted Via us so we can share the continued journey of cats that find their furever homes. We will Give updates on fund raising, Like links to our Auction page where you can grab a bargain and support our efforts at the same time.
You can see the background picture is of our fantastic new air conditioned home from home Kitten flat home to our youngsters awaiting new lives. There will be many Cat pictures to come, I mean who can resist a cute cat picture is that not the whole purrpose (see what we did there) of the Internet.
We hope to make this blog Fun informative educational and a place to get a better more in depth insight into the daily life of a cat rescue. This first blog post is basically to let you know we are here and we hope this blog will be well received. Wishing you a purrfect day
You can see the background picture is of our fantastic new air conditioned home from home Kitten flat home to our youngsters awaiting new lives. There will be many Cat pictures to come, I mean who can resist a cute cat picture is that not the whole purrpose (see what we did there) of the Internet.
We hope to make this blog Fun informative educational and a place to get a better more in depth insight into the daily life of a cat rescue. This first blog post is basically to let you know we are here and we hope this blog will be well received. Wishing you a purrfect day
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