A volunteer-run group that helps find lost pets says the sheer volume of its work with cats means it will now only look for cats with the most critical needs.
Members of ROAM — Reuniting Owners with Animals Missing — said it was a hard decision that has been over a year in the making.
They sometimes get up to 30 requests a day for help with missing cats, along with numerous other texts, private messages and phone calls — a big demand that can also cut into the time available to spend on missing dogs.
ROAM’s Lesli Steeves said the group, formed in 2016, can’t keep up with cat cases despite having over 250 volunteers.
The main focus will now be on 1oo per cent indoor cats, sick or injured cats, pregnant cats, and those that are very young or elderly.
“We’re going down the list from there to other cats, like those have been recently relocated and might not be able to find their way back as quickly.”
ROAM will continue to work on finding dogs, and sometimes various other animals, Steeves said.
“There’s dogs, there’s cats, there’s sometimes chickens, pigs, cows and ferrets,” she said with a laugh. “There’s been a lot of bird escapes lately that we’ve been able to assist in.”
The result of the overabundance of missing cats is that they can’t all be posted to ROAM’s Facebook page, Steeves said.
A message on ROAM’s Facebook says it has owners “sending angry texts, or calling us wondering why their indoor/outdoor cat, that has been missing for 24 hours, is not posted yet.
“The reality of that situation is that the vast majority of indoor/outdoor cats who leave their residence do come home within 72 hours.”
Some stay away longer, maybe a week or two, in warmer weather, ROAM said.
The group, which uses safe trapping and live cameras that send pings to volunteers among other search aids, said volunteers have been spending up to eight hours a day dealing with ROAM’s cat page on Facebook, and can’t keep it up.
“Roaming cats in particular take up hours and hours of our time, and they are almost always just outdoor cats who live in the very neighbourhood that they are seen roaming,” ROAM said. “Well-meaning people then feed them and/or let them into their homes, and it only serves to confuse the cat as to where their own home is.”
Steeves said ROAM will keep helping anyone with missing cats by posting advice on what they can do themselves.
“Everybody when their pet goes missing is obviously worried sick,” she said. “So now instead of posting right away, we’re giving them the information that will enable them to do the next steps.”
Steeves said pet owners can post on community pages or communicate on neighbourhood email chats, and should check structures in the area such as gardening sheds, leave something outside with a scent familiar to the cat or leave a door open at dusk, when cats tend to come home.
She said that since ROAM was formed, there have been only nine unresolved cases involving missing dogs, but almost 2,000 involving cats.
“They’re different beasts,” she said.
ROAM is on Facebook at facebook.com/ROAMBC.org and has a website at roambc.org/.
