The Pledge for Bliss Street Cats
THE PLEDGE FOR BLISS STREET CATS
We are raising funds for food, supplies, medical treatment, and spaying and neutering. Please take a minute to read our story and why you should support us.
Who are the cats we are helping? Most of the cats are semi-feral residents of the American University of Beirut (AUB) campus, situated on historic Bliss Street in the Ras Beirut district of Lebanon’s capital city. However, as seems to be their wont and hobby, the cats meander onto and off of campus onto Bliss Street to find more food, seek companionship, or satisfy their feline curiosity.
How long have the cats been on the AUB campus and Bliss Street? Always! However, their number frequently increases when either the neutering/spaying program lags or circumstances cause cat owners to decide to abandon their pets. This puts a lot of strain on the cat care program.
Who are the cats’ caregivers and what’s being done for the cats? The cats depend on volunteer feeders and animal care givers on and around the AUB campus. They also enjoy a very special status in the AUB community of students, faculty and staff. AUB has institutionalized a pioneering policy to keep the cats—and the environment—healthy by feeding them nutritional food every day and providing them with medical care. The medical care includes regularly neutering and spaying the cats in an effort to keep the cat population under control. This noble initiative is facing serious challenges in view of the worsening economic situation in Lebanon. A bag of cat food, which used to cost 30,000 Lebanese liras, now costs 160,000 liras, at least 5 times the pre-crisis price—and inflation is expected to continue growing. Therefore, our budget needs to be bolstered for the cats to continue eating healthy food and receiving medical care when needed.
How can you help? Until now, our community program for supporting Bliss Street Cats has been almost exclusively locally funded. However, because of the current situation in Lebanon, donations have become much scarcer. For that reason, we are now initiating a new fundraising campaign to raise the money desperately needed to sustain our program for the coming year. Since we import the food and medical supplies and pay for it in dollars, this fundraising campaign needs to be in dollars. We anticipate our food budget for next year will be approximately $15,000 with an additional $5,000 needed for supplies, medications, and emergency care. Thus, our fundraising goal is $20,000.
EVEN MODEST donations will go a long way. For example:
$10 will buy three bags of litter for the clinic.
$20 will buy the cans of cat food for sick and elderly cats for a week.
$35 will de-flea 15 cats.
$50 will feed all the cats on campus for a day.
$100 will neuter four cats.
$200 will spay four cats.
$500 will provide food for a whole week to hundreds of cats.
Please make a pledge for Bliss Street Cats.
Your donation, big or small, will always make a difference and will be greatly appreciated!
