Billy P. Brayton, a kitten adopted by Vancouver comedian Morgan Brayton, is one of over 1,300 abandoned felines rescued in 2009 by the Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue.

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NEWS: Kitten rescue program in jeopardy

Beguiling as their rhinestone-studded collars may be, the luxuries enjoyed by the manicured dogs of Yaletown do not speak for the lived experience of Vancouver’s entire pet population. Cats, in particular, are often turned out onto the streets after their owners decide to abandon them, keeping the volunteer-run Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue (VOKRA) in high demand. In 2009, VOKRA rescued 1,371 cats and kittens in Metro Vancouver, marking a spike in service that has left the organization with little funding to continue the program into the New Year.

VOKRA president and co-founder Karen Duncan says the services provided by the non-profit, non-government-funded organization have run entirely on donations in its nine years of operation. Duncan made VOKRA’s first public request for donations in December; as a result, she and her VOKRA colleagues have been able to pay some of the veterinary bills accrued from rescue efforts of the past year. Nevertheless, food currently costs the organization $750 per week, and demand for VOKRA’s humane trap-neuter-release program has reached record highs in the Vancouver area.

Over the past year, VOKRA volunteers saw a particularly high number of pet owners abandoning their cats due to financial problems or an inability to find pet-friendly housing. Duncan says the problem is worst in low-income neighbourhoods and areas with a high number of renters. “These cats are there [on the streets] because of humans,” she says. “[And there] still is the problem of people not fixing their cats.”

As part of her efforts to safeguard VOKRA against future financial difficulty, Duncan plans to strengthen her advocacy efforts with municipal governments this year. “It’s something that municipalities need to really think about,” she says. “By just supporting the cost of the spays and neuters in their area, they can help us.”

In the meantime, VOKRA will continue to humanely remove breeding, feral cats from the streets, and shelter kittens until they are ready for adoption. VOKRA’s humane trap-neuter-release program helps keep feral cat colonies down. “People are so grateful to us when we come out and trap these cats,” she says. “It’s just heartbreaking. I get calls constantly with people crying and they don’t know what to do.”

Last month, Vancouver comedian and performer Morgan Brayton helped raise $765 in a bake-a-thon that she and her wife Michele held in an effort to help VOKRA. “They save the lives of over a thousand cats a year. What would happen to those animals if VOKRA didn’t help them?” Brayton says. “It’s very sad that people can’t afford to keep or take care of their pets due to financial issues, but it’s disgusting the way some people treat animals with such disregard, leaving them in apartments when they move out, dumping them in garbage bins.”

Brayton and her wife recently adopted their first VOKRA kitten, a three-month-old they named Billy P. Brayton. “His mother was dropped off at VOKRA, pregnant and sickly,” Brayton says. “She gave birth to six kittens but died from distemper soon after. Three of her kittens died, too. The amazing staff at Killarney Animal Hospital bottle-fed the kittens and cared for them around the clock. When we took Billy in after adopting him, they were so surprised and delighted. They said they never thought the remaining kittens would live.”

Brayton praises VOKRA for its trap-neuter-release program, an alternative to the traditional practice of trapping and euthanizing feral cats. “VOKRA’s more humane approach helps control the feral population as well as improve the lives of strays, and helps find homes for adoptable kittens and cats.”

While Brayton often hears people say animal-welfare advocacy is “a waste” in comparison to other human-rights issues, she begs to differ. “Do people really think there is such a finite supply of compassion in the world?” she says. “Personally, I don’t trust people who don’t care about the suffering of animals, especially when most of that suffering is caused by supposedly more evolved humans."

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