Sled Dog Watchdog - Beaver Creek cats

'THE FELINE PLAGUE PERSISTS': Beaver Creek cat colony continues to suffer
by Genesee Keevil, Yukon News - Friday July 27, 2007

[Yukon News ONLINE VERSION is available by free subscription at http://yukon-news.com]

Beaver Creek is still overrun by cats. Beat Ledergerber is feeding 30 to 40 strays. "They just come and
go through this little door," he said last week.

"Whatever we catch we fix. But a lot we can't catch. As soon as we come in to the room where they are
eating, they take off."

The problem started last August when a Beaver Creek resident moved to Whitehorse abandoning
several cats, including one that was pregnant. By December, there were 30 feral cats wandering the
community, said local teaching assistant Randi Jestin.

"Now we have cats roaming around with no ears and tails because they froze off during the winter,"
she said last week. Jestin estimates there are 80 stray cats in the community.

"They start having kittens at six months old," she said. The feline explosion is luring foxes and bears in
to town, added Jestin, who has found a number of kitten tails lying around. Jestin also came across
eight frozen cat carcasses over the course of the winter.

"Winters are vicious," she said. "And it's not OK for animals to live in these barbaric conditions." A
number of locals are feeding the cats, she said. And some residents have adopted a few of the strays.

"We have four or five," said Ledergerber. Jestin has seven. Government Services tried to catch them in
the winter, said Beaver Creek road foreman Rick Weihrs. Jestin helped set the live traps, but only
caught a couple of the animals.

"I see them in my yard travelling back and forth," said Weihrs. "I've heard there's as many as 60. And
if nobody looks after the spaying, I don't know how many more there's going to be."

"Many of the cats have distended bellies from hunger and worms, said Jestin. These animals feel
frostbite and hunger just like we do," she said.

"And what's happening to these cats is wrong. But there's nothing to protect animals in the Yukon."
Originally from small-town Saskatchewan, Jestin is surprised by how animals are treated in the
territory. "In Saskatchewan, if animals are abused or abandoned, there are consequences," she said.
"The government needs to deal with this issue."

"Maybe (Premier Dennis) Fentie would like to come and see these cats - he could take a couple home
with him."

'Of Cats and Dogs and the Yukon Quest'