Rescuing cats a passion

People who give up their time for the good of the community do not expect anything in return. Volunteers form the backbone of many community organisations. In an ongoing series Joanne Carroll meets some Wakatipu volunteers.

A love of animals spurred Julia Milley to co-found the Queenstown Cat Rescue society.

"Ruth [de Reus] came up with the idea and got me on board. It was because there were no organisations in Queenstown to deal with wild cats," Ms Milley said.

"It came from a love of cats and a great need around Queenstown to deal with wild stray and abandoned cats. There's a lot of them."

Ms Milley, who also owns the Central Art Gallery, spends about 20 hours every week volunteering her time and donating money to the society.

The pair set up the independent Charitable Trust to reduce the number of stray and abandoned cats around Queenstown.

"The problem is when people come here for a short time and decide to get themselves a cat and then they leave but don't take the cat with them. They just leave it behind," she said.

The society covers Wakatipu, Glenorchy and Kingston.

She volunteers to put out cat-safe traps with food.

"We use the trap-neuter-return method, so once a stray cat is caught, we get it neutered and return it to the place it was found," she said.

She also rescues cats which have been abandoned.

"They are fostered by our volunteers while we endeavour to find them responsible, loving homes.
So far we have probably rehomed about 170 cats and kittens. It's a huge amount," she said.

She has also kept "numerous" cats which could not be rehoused elsewhere.

"There is only Ruth and myself who deal with the day-to-day running. It's not unusual to get a call at 10 o'clock at night about stray cats," she said.

The society also had a Facebook page to help people with lost and found cats.

Queenstown Cat Rescue promotes all animal welfare and supports other organisations.

"We advocate for desexing of all companion and stray cats that people are feeding," she said.

Queenstown Cat Rescue is funded by donations and ongoing funding is needed for traps, cages, cat food, neutering and veterinary treatment.

"We have a no-kill policy, so if it can be fixed it will be fixed. We get all the cats vet-checked, so it ends up costing a lot of money. Sometimes it can cost up to $1000 a month just in vet bills," she said.

The society had cat-food bins at Fresh Choice supermarket in Queenstown and New World in Frankton for people to donate cat food.

It is holding a Cool Cats Jazz Night at Subculture on September 25 to raise funds.

Artists had also donated artwork to Ms Milley's gallery, with all proceeds going to the cat rescue society.

• If you know of anyone who volunteers around Wakatipu, contact us at queenstown@queenstown times.co.nz