Craven resident Tom Mcconnell loves cats. He has a few of his own and also feeds area strays. He is upset after one of his cats escaped his house and became gravely ill several days later. It died and believes rat poison was to blame. He said he found rat poison outside of a nearby building which was when he called the RCMP.
Mcconnell says he doesn’t have a good relationship with the village when it comes to cats. He said he wasn’t aware of a town cat bylaw and admitted to having more cats than he should have when the town trapped and relocated some of the cats to an area farm last year. He said he went to the farm but was unable to locate them.
Since then, he said he had kept his cats indoors. Last week one of his cats got out when he was bringing in groceries, and several days later, the cat started to become ill. He said he was aware the village had traps across the street to catch a stray cat that Tom had been feeding.
He said he went to look around and found three bags of rat poison laid outside of another nearby vacant building. He called the owner, who said he hadn’t put the poison out. Mcconnell said he is concerned because kids play in the area, and he also worries about his own health with handling his pet.
Mcconnell filed a report with the Lumsden RCMP, who he said came the same day, took Mcconnell’s statement and took possession of the poison. Mcconnell also contacted poison control about the matter.
In a call to the Village of Craven, Administrator Karen Herman said the village isn’t responsible for the poison and would never use poison. “We don’t even have poison. Poison is something the RM’s have to distribute but the village doesn’t have access to poison unless we were to buy it. I pay the invoices and we have not bought any poison.”
Herman said while the village doesn’t have a specific cat bylaw or a licensing policy, they will deal with complaints of nuisance cats humanely under their nuisance bylaw.
She said that Village Council recently discussed that “if we catch a cat and we are not sure if it’s a stray or just somebody’s little buddy who got outside,” that they will post a picture of the cat on Facebook, keep it for 24 hours and if no one claims the animal they will relocate it and find the cat a new home. Herman said that the poison left out was unsafe. She doesn’t know who put the poison there and that it would be a police matter.
Sgt. Chad Clark of the Lumsden RCMP detachment said that the matter is still under investigation. He said that "In Saskatchewan, the Pest Control Products Act governs the use of pesticides for only the purpose they were supplied for and for preventing them from coming into contact with human, animal or plant life that may be injurious.
The public can call the Poison Control Centre provided by the Government of Saskatchewan for confidential emergency advice or treatment for exposure to all kinds of poisons. Call 1-866-454-1212. This confidential service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year round.
The public can also contact their local RCMP Detachment if they are concerned that pesticides are being used for anything but their intended purpose."
- Jenifer Argue, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Note: These reports may be abridged for content
