By JENNIFER MCMILLAN
Founder, Cats of Salt Spring Rescue Society
Please help us continue our work with the community cat population here on Salt Spring Island by supporting our third annual year-end matching fundraising campaign.
We are thrilled to report that, once again, a generous individual here on Salt Spring Island has offered to match donations received as part of our year-end fundraising campaign. He has increased his maximum contribution to $3,000, which means that with your help, we can raise $6,000.
Trap neuter return (TNR) and community cat care activities are essential for managing the community/feral cat population here on our island. TNR is a cost-effective and humane way of stabilizing community cat populations and, in fact, reducing them over time, as the spayed or neutered cats are no longer reproducing. In addition, unwanted behaviours such as fighting and spraying are significantly reduced when all cats in a colony are spayed or neutered. We ensure that all cats released back into the community are not only spayed or neutered but are also vaccinated and treated for fleas / parasites. All cats are released to a responsible caretaker, who feeds and monitors the cats’ wellbeing, contacting us if any health issues arise.
We need your support! Cats of Salt Spring Rescue Society does not receive funding from any organization or government. We rely solely on donations and monies that we fundraise (e.g., through our bottle drives, burger events, Country Grocer Save-a-Tape box) to support our community TNR program. We charge adoption fees for our kitten and social adult cat adoptions. However, these adoption fees do not begin to cover even our veterinary and food costs.
We are a completely volunteer-run, foster-based organization, relying solely on donations from the public and fundraising events to sustain our programs and operations. We do not have any overhead or staffing costs, meaning that all funds received go directly toward assisting cats in our community.
In addition, we were recently notified by Revenue Canada that Cats of Salt Spring Rescue Society is now a registered Canadian charity. As such, we are now able to issue tax receipts to our donors.
We are very proud to highlight some of our accomplishments for the first 11 months of 2023:
• Total number of cats and kittens assisted by our rescue: 145 (a 27 per cent increase over 2022!)
• Cats surrendered by owners to our rescue: 31
• Stray cats / trapped cats or kittens born in care: 70
• Number of cats and kittens adopted to date in 2023: 91
• Cats/kittens provided with medical care (spay/neuter, vaccinations or other medical services) as part of our TNR/community care program: 51
• Cats currently in care as part of our Lifetime Foster Program: 4
Donations to Cats of Salt Spring Rescue Society can be made in several ways:
1. Cheques can be mailed to us at the following address:
Cats of Salt Spring Rescue Society
PO Box 837 Ganges
Salt Spring Island, BC
V8K 2W3
2. Donations can be made through e-transfer to our email address – info@catsofsaltspring.com or using our phone number: 236-508-2287.
3. Donations can be made through Canadahelps.org. Although they take an administrative fee, tax receipts are provided directly to donors from Canada Helps.
4. Contributions can be made through PayPal. Please note that PayPal does take an administrative fee on all contributions made. For our link to PayPal, please visit our DONATE page (and click on the DONATE NOW button): catsofsaltspring.com/support-our-work
Tax receipts will be issued for all donations made of $20 or greater.
We are so thankful to our community for their continued support. Working together, we are making such a difference in the lives of so many cats and kittens here on Salt Spring Island.