Stray Rescue Funds Hard to Find

Catastrophe: Unaffordable medical expenses forced OSR to euthanize this cat and 10 others. (photo by Lis Kidder)

Lis Kidder is a familiar face to stray animals in Oberlin. As co-president of the Oberlin Stray Rescue league, Kidder, a sophomore, welcomes hundreds of cats into her home until they can be adopted, and makes sure any stray dogs wandering around the town find their way to the OASIS dog shelter.

It was a particularly crushing blow to the animal lover when on Tuesday she was forced to euthanize 11 cats currently living in her house.

"We just don't have the funding to save them," Kidder said in an interview the day before the cats were put down.

Having to euthanize such a large number of animals was the latest setback in a semester plagued by a severe shortage of funds. Like many other student groups, OSR found their budget slashed by the Student Finance Committee, originally receiving only $300 for the whole year. After an appeal, the amount was raised to $2500. Even coupled with $5000 in private donations, the 10-year-old organization is finding it hard to pay for the upkeep of the animals in its care. "OSR is really hurting," Kidder said.

Two of the cats being fostered by Kidder had tested positive for FIB, a fatal and extremely contagious feline respiratory disease. In order to determine whether or not the other nine cats were infected, Kidder would have had to wait four weeks for test results to be conclusive. "If we had the funding, we could board them all in isolation," she said Monday, but since OSR was unable to afford other housing arrangements, it was necessary for all the cats to be put down to avoid infecting future feline residents of Kidder's house.

"Having to choose who lives and dies based on funding...how do you make those decisions?" Kidder said. "Sometimes we can't afford to treat them."

OSR was founded in 1991 by then-student Shari Kalina (OC '93), going under the name Oberlin Aid to Strays until last year. Kalina was alarmed by the lack of adequate shelters for stray dogs in Oberlin. At the time, the town had no animal control facilities and stray animals were referred to first the police and then the pound. If they were not claimed or adopted within three days, they were put to sleep.

Kalina made a deal with the town manager to pick up and care for strays in exchange for the use of the city's old "dog pen," free electricity and absolute authority over Oberlin's stray population. The OASIS dog shelter was born as a chartered student organization, and became the only shelter in the area with a policy against euthanizing healthy animals.

The cat program was added in 1996 by then-student Susannah Telsey. OSR takes responsibility for capturing and feeding stray cats as well as paying for veterinary care.

OSR, run by Kidder and co-president Marcus Eure, a junior, took over the cat program last year when it split from the OASIS shelter, although the two organizations are still affiliated.

"[The shelter has] a contract with the city that they only take Oberlin dogs," Kidder said. Consequently, many cats pass through Kidder's house on their way to being adopted. Some are re-released if considered too feral to cohabit peacefully with people or other animals, although OSR still feeds them weekly at a designated site. OSR has plans to create a cat shelter in Oberlin, but has faced some resistance from the city.

Students who reside off-campus have the opportunity to foster stray cats during the school year, with food, litter and medical care paid for by OSR. Students also participate in the OSR ExCo, writing grants, seeking publicity for the organization and feeding and playing with the animals on a weekly basis.

Yet even with a moderate level of student involvement, OSR's lack of funds remains their biggest problem. "We do fundraisers, but it's kind of like a drop in the bucket," said Kidder, adding that the problem of strays in Oberlin could be reduced by better education about spaying and neutering pets in the community.

"There are a lot of days I feel like shooting myself," she joked wearily, "but the animals that we do end up saving, the ones that find a good home, they make me happy."