The St. Paul Animal Shelter and the St. Paul Municipal Library are partnering to host an information and work bee at the library Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m., with the goal of building shelters to keep community cats warm this winter.
According to Josiah Clarke, the manager of the animal shelter, community cats, also called feral cats, are what you call any cat living in the community. They are not the same thing as stray cats, which have owners they’ve been separated from.
“A community cat is a cat that’s in the community and doesn’t have an owner or a home and doesn’t really come up to people, whereas a stray cat would come up to somebody and look for attention,” said Clarke.
Long term, he said the goal is to be able to trap, neuter or spay, and release the feral cats, but that won’t be possible until the animal shelter’s new space is completed and funding is found.
“If you just eradicate the cats, trap and euthanize them, they’ll just be replaced by other cats that move in,” said Clarke.
“He’ll talk about cats, and feral cats, and why we need to help them and then we’ll build the shelters,” said Monique Poulin, the programmer for the library, when speaking about the upcoming event where Clarke will be on hand to speak to people.
The shelters will be made out of old hard shell coolers, which will have an entrance cut in them for the cats to go through and be lined with straw.
“The coolers need to be in fairly decent shape, but the foam will help keep the body heat in from the cat and the straw will keep it off the ground. It’ll keep the elements out a bit. It’s not great, it’s not ideal, but it’ll keep them from freezing to death,” said Clarke.
Poulin said the library will accept donations of old coolers for the project.
“Like if they have a broken hinge and you’re looking to get a new one we’ll take it off your hands,” said Poulin.
Clark said he hopes to have volunteers to monitor the shelters throughout the winter.
“The volunteers would be responsible for feeding and watering and keeping track of how many cats are in their area. And then that will give us a better understanding of where the colonies are and how we can tackle that community cat issue,” said Clarke.
“Someone’s got to start somewhere and I think this is a good way to start and get some community involvement,” said Clarke. He said he doesn’t have any volunteers to place and monitor the shelters yet, but he hopes to recruit some through the information session and work bee.
The animal shelter is currently building a 40’ x 40’ building which includes an office, quarantine room, and cat room as well as some storage space. Until the building is completed, they have an office at Community Futures and have been housing found animals at Clarke’s property and with community members.
