Help is needed for the thousands of homeless cats in the province.

Cat Rescue Maritimes, otherwise known as Carma, does its best to save abandoned felines.

But Vice-President Kathy Prosser says they’ve been overwhelmed, getting hundreds of calls a week, “To take in cats that have been abandoned and stray cats in our city. What some people don’t understand is the situation here in Moncton, we really have a major issue with abandoned and stray cats. There are thousands of cats in the city of Moncton that are abandoned.”

Prosser says they often have to turn cats away because they don’t have enough foster homes.

Currently, they have around 85 cats in care, “We can only take in as many cats as we have foster homes. So if we don’t have enough foster homes, we just can’t answer the call. We don’t have a shelter,” Prosser adds.

She says they are always looking for anyone willing to foster a cat, “The only thing you need is a room where you can have the cat isolated from your other pets and family. We have to test them and make sure that they’re not carrying anything that could spread through the household. We provide everything, the litter, the food, the vet care, you just need the room and the attention to give to the animal. And that’s it.”

The pandemic put even more stress on the cat situation because many Veterinarians reduced hours due to staff shortages and other concerns, and they were only open for emergency-type situations.

“Spaying and neutering were not considered a necessary component. We were unable to get most of our cats fixed as often as we wanted to. Since then, everything has increased in price, and that has been a huge financial blow to us. We can only spay and neuter what we can afford. Medical issues are abundant when you’re bringing in cats from outside,” Prosser stated.

For those who have an animal that they cannot care for, Prosser stresses abandoning it is not the answer, “Reach out to the SPCA, or to another rescue for information. There are five in the Moncton area alone. We can always provide information that is free. And we’ll give you some suggestions on what you can do. Abandoning them outside is absolutely not what you should be doing. As we saw with extremely cold weather recently, that was horrible. We received a lot of phone calls about cats outside, and they can’t survive in that climate. It’s heartbreaking.”

If you are interested in volunteering with Carma, as a foster or in other ways, you can find more information on their Facebook page.

“If we can get more people involved, we may be able to solve this problem. It’s really about education, and getting your pet spayed or neutered is key,” Prosser stressed.

Carma has several chapters in the province including one in Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John.