“Unattended children will be given espresso and a free kitten” (sign on the wall at the veterinary clinic of Dr. Kate Flanigan).
The owner of the veterinary clinic at an over-a-century-old farm in Guelph Township just on the border of the city has a wry sense of humour. But she is very serious when it comes to taking care of animals.
Dr. Kate Flanigan shares the 102-acre farm with her brothers, John, Jeff and Jim, and she was born and raised there. When she graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1983, she had a practice in Guelph for several years, but now she has a lot more room on a farm that raises standardbred horses and has its own track in the field opposite her clinic.
Sometimes it takes an upsetting event to spur change and for Flanigan, that happened when the Guelph Humane Society decided to restructure and suddenly let go its executive director. She looks back on that time and her 20 years with the Humane Society and notes now that she “had issues” with the society.
So did a number of members around that time, and they formed a break-away group – and then some of those members took it over, so Flanigan decided she had a different vision of how to best help animals, and she and 19 others created New Hope Animal Rescue. She is the president. In only a few months, it has already found homes for three dozen animals in need of a home – 34 cats and two dogs.
One of the issues Flanigan has is the euthanizing of pets. She believes in “low kill” because there are some cases where euthanizing an animal is necessary. But that step should be a last resort, she said.
So, Flanigan said with a shrug, “We went from one [animal help group] to three. My thought was, if someone was saving animals, the more the better.”
She said it was easy in her early career to join the Humane Society because “It’s natural for a vet to do more for animals. That’s your deal anyway.”
New Hope has 20 members and a number of volunteers scattered all over the area. Its goals are to provide an alternative to the Humane Society and to find homes for as many pets as possible. Further to that, New Hope is about some hope for feral animals.
Cats, in particular, can breed and become a major problem, but Flanigan does not want to see them killed outright. She said some folks will feed a wild cat population, but it keeps breeding and growing. New Hope plans to spay and neuter feral cats that are trapped and brought to her clinic on Jones Baseline, and then release that cat back into its population.
Simply removing a cat will not work, she said. But if the cat returns and is unable to breed, gradually the population will decrease and the problem will wither away, too.
“We need to put more effort into this,” Flanigan said.
She knows of companies that feed feral cats, and she said the issues around those groups of cats could be solved if several people stepped up to the plate – particularly other veterinarians and also her alma mater, the OVC. She said there is no reason why students should not be taught how to spay and neuter animals, under supervision, as part of their training. There is also no reason other veterinarians could not provide the occasional pro bono work to help solve the feral cat problem. Dog populations, she noted, have been under control for some time, so, “Why not cats?”
She said of other clinics helping out, “If you do the odd feral … it brings everybody into the picture. Each clinic office should be doing something.”
New Hope also runs a fostering program. Flanigan has a number of cages in her clinic, but she needs some of them for her regular work, but others are for ferals who have been neutered and are waiting to be returned to their home outdoors. Still others are for cats brought to the shelter by people who find them wandering free or who have rescued a litter of feral kittens that need help – and a good home.
As well, a pair of guinea pigs lives at the clinic and takes up a cage.
A small army of volunteers looks after those cats in their homes until New Hope can find a “forever home,” or as it is noted on the group’s website, a “fur-ever” home. New Hope pays for the food and litter, but some of the foster families pay that on their own as a donation to New Hope. The group is applying for charitable status and soon hopes to be able to issue tax receipts to those who help that way.
Michele Gettas has worked with Flanigan for years, and is proud of the number of cats New Hope has adopted so quickly. Pictures of pets up for adoption are posted on the New Hope website, but currently the group has been so successful that there were several empty cages. They will likely fill up quickly though, as spring approaches.
Flanigan said most of the adoptees New Hope found homes for would have been put down by other organizations.
When she speaks of socializing the animals, Flanigan really means it. Members and friends of the organization take animals into their homes and treat them like family pets until someone adopts them. That means the pet is used to people and will adjust better in its forever home.
Some volunteers visit the clinic to help socialize the pets. In all cases they help groom the (mainly) cats and dogs. But they also play with them.
Gettas said sometimes just sitting on the floor and playing with them will help pups and kittens learn how to interact properly with people – meaning no biting or scratching.
New Hope has an adoption application on its website, to learn as much about prospective pet owners as possible. Do they live in an apartment or house? Do they have family, roommates, or live alone? Do they have room for exercise?
The application also asks about the traits of the adopter. Are they couch potatoes or very active? Things like that are not about being nosy. Having worked with many cats, New Hope volunteers have come to understand the felines’ characters. They try to match the pets to the people adopting.
Marcus, for example, is a very handsome, friendly and “purry” cat. Gettas said he likes men and, maybe surprisingly, dogs. He was adopted by a handicapped person, but was brought back to New Hope because the owner wanted a pet that was more active. Marcus was too laid back.
Gettas said they provided a “feisty” cat, and everyone is happy.
“It was a match made it Heaven,” said Flanigan.
She added when it comes to the behaviour of pets, there are no experts with New Hope, but everybody can learn during the socializing.
Flanigan said it seems inevitable that New Hope will need its own building. She said she has a garage for some of the feral cats, and that is not part of her clinic.
The doctor noted New Hope, unlike some other groups, is always willing to liaise with other animal rescue groups. She said she is well aware of the good work done by such groups as Cats Anonymous and other animal rescue groups in the area.
Flanigan noted she has worked with a number of dog rescue groups, but right now, “cats are maxed out.”
Flanigan holds no animosity for the Humane Society, even though she disagrees now with its approach to animal care.
She was with that group for 20 years and she admitted, “You get complacent. I didn’t see some of the stuff that needed to be changed.”
Now she does, and plans to make those changes through New Hope.
Anyone interested in helping can contact the group by visiting www.newhopeanimalrescue.ca.
