Kitten tossed from a vehicle in need of emergency help
A kitten tossed from a vehicle on Highway 41 on Monday, Aug. 30, 2021, is currently in very bad condition at Princess Animal Hospital in Kingston. A good samaritan saw the incident and rushed to help the kitten.
Volunteer Alison Clark of Napanee who works with Napanee Community Kitten Rescue (NCKR), received the kitten and handed him off to be treated at the emergency vet in Kingston.
Clark affectionately gave the kitten the name “Watts” after Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones drummer who died on Aug. 24, 2021.
“Watts is only approximately three months old,” said Clark. “The Good Samaritan witnessed him being tossed but didn’t get a licence plate because rescuing the kitten was their priority.” Watts was then “zipped off to Kingston, going into shock and he will likely need a leg amputation,” Clark explained. The kitten also had road-rash on one side of his body and head trauma.
On Facebook, Clark reached out to followers, to say, “This kitten needs our help as we rush him into emergency for x-rays and examination to determine his prognosis. He appears to have a severe front leg and a head trauma injury. PLEASE HELP AS VET COSTS ARE EXPENSIVE. The immediate cost of this emergency is $1,000.00. Amputation will incur more costs if required.”
“Sadly,” Clark said, “this is a weekly occurrence in our area. We are hoping there aren’t four or more littermates tossed somewhere as well.”
“It is always our policy to rescue each and every kitten or cat that we are notified of. We do not let the dollar amount of their medical condition determine their fate. We fight for each of these cats and kittens and advocate on their behalf,” she said, adding “We encourage the good samaritan or anyone else with information about animal cruelty to contact the police.”
Alison Clark received an update from NCKR president, Nancy Clark, while speaking to Kingstonist. The text message reads, “We are sending radiographs off to radiologist as all signs are broken elbow but X-ray not showing it. The other elbow is not right. So waiting for results. May take a few days. In meantime he needs cage rest, wet food, deworm deflea and pain meds.”
Clark urges the public to “Please help your local rescue and sanctuary in any manner you are able and spay/neuter your pets.” And she wants area cat lovers to know that Napanee Community Kitten Rescue is urgently in need of Foster Families and financial donations to help with medical care.
To donate to Watts’ care, or to learn more about ways you can help by fostering and adopting their kittens and cats, please visit Napanee Community Kitten Rescue’s Website.
Every year this horrific act happens, some are witnessed and most are not. There are indeed cruel humans out there discarding animals every day. However, until Kingston acknowledges and acts responsibly on the pet overbreeding crisis we deal with e very year, allowing our streets and homes to be over run because we do not have access to a high volume low cost spay neuter service, this crisis will continue. Bandaiding the problem with vouchers and passing the problem to the cat rescues that are burned out is a disgraceful and cowardly way for a so called progressive and sustainable city to address the overbreeding. Why hasn’t the OSPCA teamed up with the KHS to assist financially in opening a low cost spay neuter clinic accessble to every community member who needs, finds, traps an intact cat. They do in many other communities as they receive provincial funding to do so.
Instead, a Bylaw is being entertained by the ARPC for Kingston to limit pets in homes because a landlord Association is having financial woes and people complained about their properties being used as latrines. Who dreamt up that solution when the only sustainable solution is helping this community stop the breeding crisis with affordable spay neuter. We all know what veterinarians charge and we need them on board to work with this community and not against it. 1000’s of cats are out there now, breeding and kittens are born that maybe are rescued but most likely die from starvation/freezing or human neglect and abuse. Turning a blind eye to this crisis is a form of abuse and it falls on the doorstep of this city for failing to walk the talk and be a responsible city when it comes to pet ownership. Kittens start breeding @ 6 months of age, with siblings and parents. This is gross negligence allowing it to continue. Time to find out what is preventing opening a HVLC S/N clinic for Kingston and community. These are community cats. Finally, the population of Kingston is not sufficient to provide foster or adoption homes for the thousands of breeding cats now. Multi pet homes are a result of this imbalance. Limiting the number of pets a home can have is another ineffective wasteful bylaw that will escalate this crisis. More animals will get kicked to the street.