BARRIE — It’s been just over a month and a half since staff at Aldergrove Animal Clinic in south-end Barrie came to work to find 26 ragdoll cats abandoned in cardboard boxes on the front porch. Despite the best efforts of everyone involved, 13 of those kittens have since died.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Furry Friends Animal Shelter, a local non-profit and no-kill organization, initially confirmed the deaths.
“Our hearts have been relentlessly tugged between elation over small victories, and sorrow over huge losses," the post reads. "We have had to watch as, despite the endless efforts of our incredible vets and foster families, more of these perfect cotton ball angels have succumbed to the neglect that they suffered at the hands of the humans who failed them before they met us."
Being a no-kill shelter, that kind of a loss is having a big impact on the volunteers, Nicole Swyers, the volunteer feline co-ordinator for the Hart Drive animal shelter, told BarrieToday.
“I think it’s the biggest loss we’ve had, certainly in a long time,” she said, confirming that since the shelter took the kittens at the end of July, more than a dozen have since succumbed to illness.
Swyers said it's still unknown what illnesses the kittens suffered from, adding it could be anything from parvovirus or feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), which is mostly undetectable and untreatable.
“It’s been really tough. The fosters have been bottle-feeding some of them, so (they’re) up every two hours. They go up in another two hours and find that one of them has passed. It’s been mentally and emotionally exhausting. It hasn’t been easy,” she said.
While volunteers were hoping for the best outcome for all of the kittens, Swyers acknowledged they knew it was possible that not all of them would survive.
“We knew that they were sick and that anything could happen, and unfortunately this is where we are at. We did the best we could and that’s all we could do," she said.
Virginia Cornell, who owns and operates the south-end Barrie veterinary clinic, told BarrieToday in July that, after assessing the animals, only four of the 26 were fully healthy, while the remaining 22 all had medical problems of some sort.
Swyers wanted to thank the volunteers and all of the people who have helped — both through donations and by fostering the abandoned animals.
“We are in constant contact with the fosters," she said. "We are hoping we are through the worst now and that the rest are going to be getting stronger and to the point where they will flourish and get better.
"Everyone did the best they could, from the vets to the volunteers. All we can do is to keep going for the ones that are still alive.”
One of the adult cats recently gave birth to five kittens, Swyers added, noting shelter volunteers are monitoring those newborn kittens very closely.
“If (the) mom has something, she would pass it along to the kittens. It’s a day-by-day thing right now. But that was one kind of happy thing I guess ... and they are all, so far, healthy.”
