how carma came to be all about Trappping-Neutering-Returning
History
Trap Neuter Return (TNR) began in Denmark in the mid 1970s and has been practiced in Europe and several parts of North America for decades. Two ladies working with homeless cats surrounding Baie Verte, NB and Amherst, NS since 2005 began adopting a TNR approach in 2006.
Ca-r-ma.org-Cat Rescue Maritimes (commonly known as CARMA or CARMA CAT) received certification as a Canadian registered charity, registration number 835850561RR0001, on January 1, 2007. Public education and concern grew with TNR as a solution to humanely reduce unowned cat populations and, in effect, rescue future generations of community cats from hardship and suffering. Several chapters of CARMA quickly formed across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Our Foster/Adoption program allows us to place animals unable to survive colony conditions in a supportive environment for socialization and stabilizing their health. We then partner with shelters or use our network to find ideal homes for cats that have seen a veterinarian, been neutered and parasite-treated. When funding allows, our cats have received additional veterinarian services, so always inquire.
Our goal is to bring CARMA to every community in the Maritimes where unowned cats are present. We want to help you to help them. Interested in helping? Contact your local chapter today or learn what to consider when beginning a new one.
dispelling misconceptions
what we cannot do
As our purpose and activities are registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), we cannot use donations from our supporters to operate beyond what we have registered: misrepresentation would be dishonest to our donors, would jeopardize our standing with CRA, and ultimately disqualify our operations as a charity.
We cannot assist with any vet costs or neutering of owned pets. Please contact your municipality as they may know of a low-cost spay or neuter charity operating in your area.
We are not animal control and thus do not trap and remove nuisance animals from your property.
Please contact your municipality or a private company.
We cannot take in unwanted pets.
Please contact your local animal shelter.
CARMA may not own nor maintain a shelter of any sort. No funds donated can be used to build, nor maintain, nor staff an animal shelter for any of our chapters; however, each CARMA chapter has (or is seeking) community relationships to partner with such as the SPCA or a local shelter.
We cannot manage complaints about animal abuse or hoarding. Please contact your local animal shelters and your municipality and possibly the police. Often humane societies have legislated authority by the province to intervene.
Please report animal abuse, abandonment, or neglect to the provincial SPCA or Humane Society:
New Brunswick 1-877-722-1522
Nova Scotia 1-888-703-7722
PEI 902-892-1191
If a cat is sick or injured, contact a veterinarian immediately. Make them aware the cat is unowned.
They may recommend you to another vet. Please do not give up.
what makes carma unique in the maritimes
None Of Us are Paid for Time Nor Effort Nor Ideas
LOCAL FIRST : a Collective that comes Together as a Team
LOCAL FIRST : a Collective that comes Together as a Team
CARMA is an all-volunteer organization. All trapping, transportation, fostering and fundraising is done by a small army of dedicated volunteers. Everyone on the other end of an email or telephone call donates their time, energy and heart to help. Volunteers use their personal phones and internet: our head office does not even have a telephone because not having that bill means we can neuter one more cat each month.
Our volunteers are united by their passion for our mission: to humanely reduce the over-population of homeless cats and kittens through TNR, fostering, adoption and building relationships that support community cats. Contact your local chapter today for volunteer opportunities. Click now to let Moncton or Pictou County chapters know about your interest, skills and schedule.
LOCAL FIRST : a Collective that comes Together as a Team
LOCAL FIRST : a Collective that comes Together as a Team
LOCAL FIRST : a Collective that comes Together as a Team
Our mandate is carried out through community-based chapters.
Each CARMA chapter operates independently within the constitution and guidelines of the charity.
Operating in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia since 2005 and a registered charity since 2007,
CARMA focuses on feral population control through a Trap-Neuter-Return program. Each chapter has a chair, treasurer, and secretary devoted to the work in their area in addition to as many volunteers as they can host.
The chapters come together annually to discuss solutions and problems that other chapters can learn from.
We currently celebrate the work of 9 chapters. Our goal is to bring CARMA to every community in the Maritimes where unowned free-roaming cats are present. We want to help you to help them. Interested in helping? Join the efforts of a local chapter or learn about starting a new chapter where there is no coverage.
We Hustle to Provide for Unowned Cats
LOCAL FIRST : a Collective that comes Together as a Team
As a Registered Charity, we are Publicly Responsible with our Funding
Some of our process and requirements for successful community partnerships include the act of us obtaining written permission (a form) to live-trap cats where someone is feeding one or more homeless cats and is willing to continue to do so. We may take adoptable animals, mainly kittens, from the colony, to foster, socialize, neuter, and place in approved adoptive homes. For adult cats, their TNR appointment with our vet will be the only time these cats see a veterinarian in their life. The clinic can provide them with minor medical care as needed, including parasite treatment and vaccinations. Cats of breeding age must be healthy enough to undergo surgery and return to their original colony setting. If they are not, sometimes other procedures are necessary, but our goal is to keep the cat away from its outdoor home as little as possible because this stress can medically put a cat at risk. Community cats are returned to their location with a caregiver agreement in place. When resources allow, CARMA may also assist caregivers by providing food and lending moveable shelters for the colony.
As a Registered Charity, we are Publicly Responsible with our Funding
As a Registered Charity, we are Publicly Responsible with our Funding
As a Registered Charity, we are Publicly Responsible with our Funding
As a Registered Charity, we are publicly responsible and transparent with our funding. Each chapter is funded by donations, various fundraising projects and through occasional grants and bequests.. We rely on donations to set up and support communities of care for our animals, including interventions. Your donation can help provide food, shelter, and medical care for unowned animals in need. Donate today and make a difference in a cat or kitten's life.
Our largest expenditure is veterinary services. Additional expenditures within each chapter include foster supplies, transportation, trapping supplies, insurance, phone plans, bank fees, fundraising costs, marketing, postage, office supplies and ongoing colony care e.g. food and shelter construction.
All donations in excess of $10 are acknowledged with an official receipt for (NRTC) income tax purposes.
Trapping-Neutering-Returning (TNR)
As a Registered Charity, we are Publicly Responsible with our Funding
Advocating for Relationships with Community Cats
Following recovery from surgery, the cats CARMA assists are returned to their colony to live out their lives. CARMA cats are not “released into the wild.” Instead, they are returned to a monitored site where food, water, and shelter have been ensured through a signed agreement with the colony caregivers.
Through TNR, community cats can live out their lives without adding to the homeless cat population. Our TNR efforts would not be as effective without concerned citizens who want to make space for these cats in their communities. If you are already assisting a colony or you are interested in being a colony caregiver, contact your local chapter for tips, direction and support.
TNR is universally recognized as the least costly, most humane, and most effective approach to solving feral and unsocialized cat population issues. Creating conditions for relationships of reciprocity with unowned cats bolsters the impact of TNR efforts where you live.
Advocating for Relationships with Community Cats
As a Registered Charity, we are Publicly Responsible with our Funding
Advocating for Relationships with Community Cats
Homeless cat populations in the Maritimes, across Canada and around the world, have reached crisis proportions. Feral cats are an integral part of a global humane issue. Helping homeless cats across all levels of socialization requires a special approach.
TNR helps the community at large by stabilizing the population of feral colonies and over time, reducing it, as no more kittens are born. At the same time, nuisance behaviours such as spraying, yowling, roaming, and fighting are also reduced. Simultaneously, the benefit of natural rodent control is continued.
On an individual level, many constituents gain enjoyment, a sense of humane purpose, and confidence that their acts of generosity (of time, supplies, spirit, and heart) make a difference in the world. Watching the cats on camera, noting when the food has been eaten, or seeing their tracks in the snow can bring joy to children of all ages.
YOU!!! EVERYONE HAS A ROLE TO PLAY
From youth selflessly hosting food drives at their birthday parties to endowments that fund our TNR
Effort, time, and funds are what make our operations run smoothly and confidently.
There is nothing worse than being powerless to help an animal in peril.
YOU can help by reporting an unowned cat, adopting, volunteering, donating, spreading the word, and getting curious.
Our community contributions empower us to transform the lives of community cats and their caregivers.
our chapters pay for veterinary services
Our Reality
Only some CARMA chapters currently receive discounts on veterinarian visits and services from the SPCA, local veterinarian clinics, or veterinarian conglomerates. Often it is the smallest operations that give the largest discounts and offerings of flexibility.
Currently the cost of a female spay is between $297-$352 +tax.
This cost may come as a shock to many who remember a time when gas, groceries and vet care felt affordable, not a luxury.
Many who would take the time to care for community cats already struggle with the cost of groceries, transportation and heat.
The cost of a complicated (including pregnant) female spay is between $350-$450 currently. Many of our TNR cases in Spring and Autumn are in this category.
Partnerships with other Animal Welfare Organizations Extend our Reach and Impact
A misconception is that a government body funds us directly through taxes or that veterinary clinics provide services to us for free. Occasionally, chapters can negotiate for a generous 10-20% discount in their area only when the veterinarians are part owners of the clinic. This means we can help 10-20% more cats!
Occasionally the SPCA will partner with CARMA to do a mobile neuter clinic, but sadly this is only available in Nova Scotia, leaving New Brunswick and PEI without this critical service for unowned cats that would otherwise not receive any medical or health care.
Veterinary Science and Technical programs often offer services at cost while training future workers in the field. This often means we can help at least 50% more cats!
CELEBRATIONS of Financial Partnerships that make some of our chapters' work Possible:
If and when any veterinary partners would like to be celebrated, they will be listed here:
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Sadly, we may have no chapter in your locale, YET...
IMMEDIATE HELP
MAKE CHANGE WHERE YOU LIVE
MAKE CHANGE WHERE YOU LIVE
Occasionally, a group of volunteers can be organized to travel to your area to lend equipment, expertise, time, cat food, and community connections like veterinarians who are willing to make appointments with us while understanding the unpredictability of trapping. Volunteers will not be organized out of region without fuel costs and vet
Occasionally, a group of volunteers can be organized to travel to your area to lend equipment, expertise, time, cat food, and community connections like veterinarians who are willing to make appointments with us while understanding the unpredictability of trapping. Volunteers will not be organized out of region without fuel costs and veterinary bills being covered for the cats we work with in your region.
Should your town or organization be in a position to support this, and should we have volunteers available to work with cats and caregivers in your region, we can discuss our protocols and partnership needs to Trap, Neuter, and Return unowned cats to their current outdoor home.
Please reach out once you have established funding and the beginnings of a long term care plan for feeding, watering and sheltering the cat colonies.
MAKE CHANGE WHERE YOU LIVE
MAKE CHANGE WHERE YOU LIVE
MAKE CHANGE WHERE YOU LIVE
We recommend rallying some friends (or bravely going alone) to a town council meeting to ask what the town’s plan is to humanely manage the unowned cat population. Often areas assume that someone else (like DNR or the SPCA or the pound) manages this. This is unlikely unless that organization has an active contract with that town or regi
We recommend rallying some friends (or bravely going alone) to a town council meeting to ask what the town’s plan is to humanely manage the unowned cat population. Often areas assume that someone else (like DNR or the SPCA or the pound) manages this. This is unlikely unless that organization has an active contract with that town or region, and that they are receiving funding to manage this. Doing your research and finding out if any such contracts are live before you go to the meeting will ensure your concern is not dismissed.
Too often, people assume it is someone else’s job or jurisdiction and the cats receive zero help.
LONG TERM HELP
MAKE CHANGE WHERE YOU LIVE
LONG TERM HELP
CARMA.org will help you open a chapter in your area. We recommend putting a call out to potential key volunteers that could help you make a pledge and run operations in your area for at least two years. We recommend a minimum of 6 committed volunteers as there are several positions and duties to uphold. Chapter chair, chapter secretary
CARMA.org will help you open a chapter in your area. We recommend putting a call out to potential key volunteers that could help you make a pledge and run operations in your area for at least two years. We recommend a minimum of 6 committed volunteers as there are several positions and duties to uphold. Chapter chair, chapter secretary, chapter treasurer make up the minimum 3 required positions. To avoid burnout, consider in advance who will fulfil the tasks (and depth of each effort) of fundraising coordinator, trapper, trapping list coordinator, manager for community relationships, social media content creator, donations manager (e.g. fundraising fodder, food and supplies that you will distribute...)? who will house the trapped cats overnight until their vet appointment the next day? who will pick the cats up from the vet and release them to their original location? Do you have anyone who could build outdoor cat shelters? Who will make and coordinate veterinary appointments?...What will you do with kittens or adoptables? How will you make tough decisions together?...How will you celebrate together?
After establishing a committed team, CARMA.org can provide you a package to guide your process of establishing a new chapter. We invite you to reach out. Many of our chapter leads and key volunteers can meet with you to help you plan your approach and assess your needs along the way. Having a large group of committed volunteers is the foundation of each chapter and determines its success. We are excited by your passion for the community cats. We look forward to connecting with you.