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*click on the cat at the piano at your peril
Kitty Gone Viral
Bountiful Films
Helen Slinger and Maureen Palmer
Sept 7, 2009
“Would you ever dream of opening up your door at 11pm and booting out your dog to
roam the streets for the night? Well, that’s what hundreds of thousands of cat owners do
- and that’s why we have a cat crisis in Canada.”
-Bill Bruce,
Director of Animal and Bylaw Services, Calgary
Yes, in case you didn’t know it, there is a cat crisis -- not just in Canada but worldwide.
The domestic cat is the second most invasive species in the world. While we humans are
home enjoying Tom’s furry antics on YouTube (113 million videos on YouTube),
kittycats are getting busy – very busy – elsewhere.
At the root of the problem - “cats can’t add but they sure can multiply.” Say Fluffy has
two litters of six kittens each year, and half of those are female. In two years, two cats
begat 500 kittens and in seven years – 420,000 kittens! This does not account for the feral
population where females have as many as 4 litters a year.
A 2007 Ipsos Reid report estimates 7.9 million pet cats in Canada. Tack another
estimated 5.5 million ferals to that and you’ve got a problem, a problem that doesn’t
simply grow but multiplies! We pay to shelter lost and abandoned animals, investigate
cruelty, capture strays and ferals. Taxpayers absorb the costs of spay-neuter programs and
veterinary care. We pick up the tab when cat disease becomes a threat to human health.
Case in point, the 2006 outbreak of Toxoplasmosis in a municipal water system on
Vancouver Island that was linked to feral cats. The costs are staggering - to us, to the
cats, and to other species.
The impact of cat predation worldwide is alarming and controversial. Controversial
because many cat owners reject the notion that kitty causes carnage. But according to
several respected organizations, cats kill some 165 million songbirds in Canada every
year, and three times as many small mammals. Lovers of free-roaming felines blame
global warming or other predators but studies of island eco-systems, where external
factors can easily be ruled out, show how damaging cat predation can be. When cats were
removed, other species bounced back.
In the western world, we liken our house-cats to lions and we think they need to roam
free to be happy and natural. But cats free to wander will hunt, and will breed –
devastating other species and bringing their own into crisis. The massive numbers mean
a decline in societal value. Most people turn a blind eye as humane societies are forced
to kill cats, and as colonies of abandoned and feral cats struggle to survive. A few super
predators will make it but, worldwide, hundreds of thousands of feral cats die of
starvation each year. Kind-hearted souls who feed the colonies are simply unable to keep
up with the numbers.
Solutions to the over-population crisis range from the radically simple, to the extreme.
Dr. Stephen O’Brien heads the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Cancer
Institute in the United States. In 2007, his Feline Genome Project sequenced and
interpreted all the genes in Cinnamon, an Abyssinian cat. His cancer-fighting research
team is concentrating on cats because genetically they’re a lot like us. But now that
we’ve identified the cat’s genes – in the not too distant future, we can use that knowledge
help solve world’s kitty overpopulation crisis. Using genetic manipulation, scientists can
create a sterile cat. No more spay and neuter woes. Or, create a breed genetically
programmed with diminished prey drive and a greater desire to stay home!
There’s another solution – simple and low-tech: license cats the way we do dogs. It’s the
solution adopted by the city of Calgary. A licensed cat is neutered and doesn’t wander
freely at night to propagate. Bill Bruce, Calgary’s man in charge of bylaws, orchestrated
a fundamental shift in the paradigm between pet owners and bylaw officers. Three years
after the bylaw passed, Calgary doesn't have Animal Control Officers anymore. They
have what Bill refers to as Animal Courtesy Officers, all certified mediators. The money
from licensing is funding Canada’s first free spaying and neutering clinic. With 50
percent of Calgary cats licensed, the kill rate has dropped dramatically and Bill hopes
Calgary will be the first major city in Canada to officially go no-kill in every animal
shelter. He can envision a day soon when Calgary may have to import surplus cats from
other provinces to meet adoption demand.
Now Calgary, when it comes to animal control, is the envy of the continent. Animal
shelters, SPCAs and animal rights groups clamour for Bruce to come and speak. Because
they all know the cost of cat over-population - to humans, to other small mammals and
songbirds, and to the cats themselves.
Kitty Gone Viral explores the cat over-population crisis from diverse perspectives because not everyone agrees with Bruce’s radically simple approach, from the dedicated
volunteers who protect Canada’s network of feral cat colonies to those who support less
humane, more drastic approaches to control cat populations.
This film will capture all the evangelism and emotion of this highly charged issue. We’ll
marry good journalistic storytelling with clever use of all things “cat” - from YouTube
“Cat Hits,” to famous cat people, to animation capturing the mythic personality of an
animal whose true nature continues to elude – and fascinate - us.