Photo from the Burquitlam Lions Care Centre Facebook page, uploaded December 20, 2012.
Our friends at Animals Are Not Garbage shared the story of the Burquitlam Lions Care Centre cats, and the effort to keep them in place, with us today. Burquitlam Lions Care Centre is a senior residential nursing care facility in Coquitlam, BC. Their motto, as displayed at the home’s website, is “A home with tender loving care.” According to a story by Michelle Gwynn in The Examiner, and the text of a petition to the residential facility, new management plan to remove the home’s resident cats that help provide a home like atmosphere and much needed comfort and companionship to residents. A family member of one resident says that over the past year, plants, resident birds, and the music program have disappeared.
One resident’s daughter has set up a Care2 petition by Friends of BLCC Companion Cats asking the management to relent and allow the four current resident cats to stay. The Examiner article states, “Jenine H., whose mother is a resident, is heavily advocating for keeping the cats at BLCC and asking everyone to sign a petition sponsored online by Linda Austin on Care2.org.”
The Examiner article continues, “Jenine H. says one of the cats sleeps with her mother every night. Without this simple form of comfort, both her mother and the cat who loves her would suffer. She shares ‘The last meeting was recorded and the minutes from that meeting can be sent out to the public, and (the)same with the recordings. He [BLCC Administrator] (David Dines) can not hide behind his desk anymore and bully the families that are trying to stop this.’ ” Jenine H. is also quoted saying “David Dines has made been making false statements about the cats and saying they are sick and they are going to make the people living there sick, too.”
The home’s website still lists Pet Therapy as an amenity, and says that in addition to pet visitors, “We have several house cats on our residential floors that provide companionship to Residents.”
The petition reads:
Companion cats have been a staple at Burquitlam Lions Care Center for over 12 years. Now with a new recreation manager, the administration made the decision to remove the 4 remaining companion cats that have lived in the home since some of them were kittens, providing, love and giving the seniors a sense of home within a care facility. These cats are all healthy , have had veterinary care, provided free of charge to the BLCC. They had a large pet store company that was willing to donate all food and litter for the remaining life of the cats, also free. This management team has not listened to the voices of the residents , or the family advocates speaking on behave of the elders, most all are in favour of keeping the cats. My own mother said ” it is like taking her pet away from her. All the staff get to go home a see their pets, while she has to stay in the home, day in and day out, now her beloved pet is being removed for no reason.” This mangement team does not want to hear the benefits of companion animals and seniors. They want to push their agenda through and didn’t want to have any opposition! Please sign this petition, for one day you too may be in a care home, then what.
Readers interested in signing the petition to keep the cats in place can click the link below to sign:
Stop the removal of companion cats at Burquitlam Lions Care Home HELP!!
As noted by Michelle Gwynn in her story on the cats, names and contact info appear to have been pulled from the BLCC website. Both the Contact us, and the Management and board of directors team pages at the home’s website are currently unavailable. Ms. Gwynn provides contact info in her story.
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Let the cats stay there that is the only enjoyment in their life. They give the ederly comfort and love why take that away.
It would be cruel not to let them keep their pets.
let them keep their cats.get rid of the managers
I am a registered nurse with moderate to severe asthma and allergies. I believe one becomes desensitized to them with routine contact, just as I did when I got my first dog. I was told I could never have any pets as long as I lived. I now have two dogs and my asthma and allergies are doing well with them. I did a community project with geriatric psych on the benefits of pets and pet therapy. It has been proven through research that stroking a cat/dog for instance, decreases blood pressure and heart rate. Living with a pet decreases hospitalizations, length of hospital stays, illnesses, helps with depression, and increases ones life span. Taking these beloved pets away from the residents may shorten their life and will, with no question impact their quality of life. By removing these cats, the management implies that the cats are old and thus no longer have any value and are useless. Are they trying to send a message to the residents that as they are old too, that they can be tossed aside as they are now useless. This would be a total sin to remove these cats from this residence. It would be upsetting to the cats and have a severe impact on the physical and mental well being of these residents. As a registered nurse it is far healthier for the residents to keep their beloved cats. Residents of care homes get to know each other and it becomes a second family, these cats have also become part of their family. To break up their family after all the hard ships they have been through in life and all that they have done for our country is a criminal crime!
The cats offer unconditional love and companionship. Let them stay. Replace the management.
These animals bring comfort and peace to the seniors why would anyone want to destroy a plan that works to help not only the animals but the seniors. Being stuck in a nursing home is bad enough without the comfort of a loving animal to help the loneliness.