Alteen runs the Corner Brook Scaredy Cat Rescue’s Kitty Korner. After being contacted about the kitten by someone in York Harbour, fellow rescuer Janet Bennett of Sunshine Kitty Rescue travelled to the community to retrieve the kitten on Wednesday.
The kitten was in a residential area of the community near a store and had been coaxed into a shed with food.
Alteen said they don’t know where the kitten came from, but she doesn’t think the eight-week-old kitten is feral, just that she’s been on her own for a while.
When Bennett found the kitten it had a wire snare embedded around its pelvis.
The kitten weighs 1.13 pounds and has gashes on both sides of its belly. These are areas that are difficult to heal. It is also dehydrated and has been receiving fluids subcutaneously.
Alteen said she knows snares are legal. Provincial regulations state that only 22-guage brass wire or six-strand picture cord can be used.
“But this wasn’t a legal one,” she said of the stainless steel wire removed from the kitten.
“It’s not something I can break with my hands.”
Alteen wonders if hunters know they can’t use the stainless steel snares.
But no matter what kind they use, she says, they need to be more cautious and shouldn’t set snares so close to residential areas.
She said this is the second time a cat has been caught in a snare in that area.
“Snares are probably still out there,” she said.
If that’s the case, there could be more trapped kittens, because where there’s one kitten there’s usually more.
“How many are just caught in the snares and then die in the woods?”
Alteen plans to contact the RCMP and provincial wildlife officials about the incident.
Alteen runs the Corner Brook Scaredy Cat Rescue’s Kitty Korner. After being contacted about the kitten by someone in York Harbour, fellow rescuer Janet Bennett of Sunshine Kitty Rescue travelled to the community to retrieve the kitten on Wednesday.
The kitten was in a residential area of the community near a store and had been coaxed into a shed with food.
Alteen said they don’t know where the kitten came from, but she doesn’t think the eight-week-old kitten is feral, just that she’s been on her own for a while.
When Bennett found the kitten it had a wire snare embedded around its pelvis.
The kitten weighs 1.13 pounds and has gashes on both sides of its belly. These are areas that are difficult to heal. It is also dehydrated and has been receiving fluids subcutaneously.
Alteen said she knows snares are legal. Provincial regulations state that only 22-guage brass wire or six-strand picture cord can be used.
“But this wasn’t a legal one,” she said of the stainless steel wire removed from the kitten.
“It’s not something I can break with my hands.”
Alteen wonders if hunters know they can’t use the stainless steel snares.
But no matter what kind they use, she says, they need to be more cautious and shouldn’t set snares so close to residential areas.
She said this is the second time a cat has been caught in a snare in that area.
“Snares are probably still out there,” she said.
If that’s the case, there could be more trapped kittens, because where there’s one kitten there’s usually more.
“How many are just caught in the snares and then die in the woods?”
Alteen plans to contact the RCMP and provincial wildlife officials about the incident.