For more information about the St. John Feral Cat Fund or to volunteer, contact Victoria St. John at 534-0824. Donations can be made at PetSmart in Plattsburgh or mailed to the organization at P.O. Box 2884, Plattsburgh, NY, 12901.
PLATTSBURGH — Resting amid debris, broken glass and rotting food is a place where a handful of cats find sanctuary.
Almost every day the unwanted felines, visibly weary from months of neglect, have to dodge vehicles moving through South Catherine Street parking lots and are often tormented by area tenants.
Their nourishment and care is left to St. John Feral Cat Fund volunteers, who tend to dozens of feral cats in more than 30 colonies across the tri-county area.
As the community need grows, funding hardships and volunteer shortages have volunteers wondering whether they can continue their mission of population control through education and trap-neuter-and-return programs.
"With the economy as it is, a lot of people are moving and leaving their pets behind or they just can't take care of them anymore," said Victoria St. John, Feral Fund director and founder.
"We really want to help more cats this year, but it's getting to a point that I don't know if we can."
Within the last year alone, volunteers found four new colonies within the City of Plattsburgh and said each unfixed cat and kitten compounds the problem.
In Willsboro, one elusive cat has already given birth to eight feral litters.
She is one of the many wild cats Feral Fund volunteers hope to capture this spring during their annual mass-trapping efforts.
This year, they hope a low-cost mobile spaying and neutering program will allow them to help more cats, but that's only if funding is available.
"The more volunteers and donations we have, the more we can do. And the donations and adoptions are really the only things that keep us running," she said.
The organization, which is not a shelter, has already spayed or neutered more than 2,000 cats and found more than 100 homes for rescues last year alone.
Outside of daily feral-cat care, volunteers take 50 to 100 calls a week about abused and neglected animals and try their best to help.
But veterinary costs for those animals — like those seriously injured by bear traps placed in residential areas — deplete their already strained funding and impact annual trapping efforts, which, St. John says, has a more humane and lasting impact.
"Once they're spayed and neutered and put back away from the public, they're fine. Mass trapping will help more than anything."
She said the organization needs everything from financial and supply donations to volunteers for their PetSmart Adoption Center and foster-care programs.
"We really appreciate the community's support and hope it will continue so we can do more to help," said Amelia St. John, who also donates countless hours to the volunteer program.
For Victoria, community education, responsible pet ownership and spaying and neutering is the best way to curb feral populations.
"These cats aren't the problem, people are."
E-mail Andrea VanValkenburg at: avanvalkenburg@pressrepublican.com
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