Reuniting lost cats with their owners is a tricky and oftentimes disheartening process.
With no cat bylaw in place in St. Albert, it’s nearly impossible to tell whether a feline is lost, feral or simply allowed to roam the great outdoors. This leads to very low reunion rates between cats and their owners.
But a group of concerned citizens thinks it may have found a solution in the form of orange collars.
Part of a larger grassroots project called Kitty Convict – initiated by the creators of the Exploding Kittens card game – outfitting indoor cats with orange collars or bandanas is meant to act as a quick and easy identification measure.
“There are a lot of wonderful pet advocates in our city, but when it comes to cats it’s so hard to determine whether that cat is lost,” said Community of St. Albert Facebook page administrator Saylor McLennan. “My hope is that if we start witnessing more cats around with orange collars maybe people will be more inclined to pick them up.”
The colour orange was chosen for two reasons: it’s bright and reflective, and it brands the feline as an “escaped convict” that should be returned to its indoor home.
McLennan came across the Kitty Convict project while researching ways to improve the community’s reunion statistics.
Whereas dogs have a 98 per cent chance of being reunited with their owners within a few days, very few cats make it back home, says McLennan. She estimates reunion rates for St. Albert’s missing felines sit between five to 10 per cent.
Cats also make up the majority of St. Albert lost and found posts. The Community of St. Albert Facebook page has been receiving on average one post request per day from owners searching for their missing cat. Currently there are 25 missing cats in St. Albert.
Misti Lee Lantz, vice president of Alberta Lost Pet Locator and Rescue Society and administrator of the St. Albert Pet Place Facebook page, likes the Kitty Convict idea, but said what the city really needs is a cat bylaw that would require cats to be licensed and prevent them from roaming.
“Until there’s a cat bylaw in St. Albert we’re still going to have a lot of lost cats,” she said.
St. Albert has explored imposing cat regulations in the past. The issue was most recently revisited during the 2012 review of the animal bylaw. Ultimately, it was seen as too costly.
Regulating cats would require hiring additional municipal enforcement staff positions to deal with complaints, purchasing a new vehicle and a signing a new kennel contract, given that the current kennel provider indicated it did not have the capacity to house the estimated 275 impounded cats per year, said city reports from the time.
Instead residents are left to their own devices when trying to reunite or locate lost cats.
Manager of policing services Aaron Giesbrecht said he welcomes any public campaign that helps reunite pets and owners.
“I know how difficult and emotionally stressful it is to be separated from a pet in these types of circumstances,” he said.
The Kitty Convict idea has received a lot of positive response since McLennan posted it to social media over the weekend. As of Thursday afternoon the post had been shared over 1,200 times and has been viewed in the newsfeeds of 95,639 Facebook users.
Though some concern was expressed over collars being a choking hazard when worn by unattended animals (breakaway collars are recommended), many residents are pledging to use the new identification measure.
“My cats are not allowed outdoors,” said Ruth Vivian in an interview, “but even with being vigilant one of them will occasionally get out the door under somebody's feet. Anything to help identify them as escapees sounds like a good idea.”
Cats that have been identified with an orange collar can be taken to a veterinary clinic to get their microchip checked, to the Edmonton Humane Society for shelter and safety, or directly home if an ID tag is attached to their collar.
