Maria Soroski and Karen Duncan are the co-founders of the Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association (VOKRA). Founded in the year 2000, VOKRA has made a significant impact in addressing the homeless population of stray and feral cats in Vancouver and surrounding municipalities. This dedicated, volunteer-driven charity is on a mission to end cat overpopulation and homelessness. VOKRA rescues, heals, and rehomes cats in foster homes and carefully matched, loving homes. With extensive cat care experience and a commitment to the no-kill philosophy, Maria and Karen have made remarkable strides in the humane treatment of stray and feral cats, using approaches such as Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). We got to speak to them to find out more about the organization.
Describe your charity/non-profit/volunteer work in a few sentences.
Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue (VOKRA) was founded in the year 2000 to address the homeless population of stray and feral cats “Trap Neuter Return” in the Vancouver area. Since then we have also expanded to Burnaby, Surrey, and other municipalities within close proximity, rescuing homeless stray street cats and fixing feral cats so their population stops… Vokra has virtually reduced feral cats to just a handful in Vancouver and Burnaby.
VOKRA’s mission is to end cat overpopulation and cat homelessness. We rescue, heal, then home cats – first in our network of foster homes, then in carefully matched, loving, forever homes. We are a passionate, volunteer-driven charity with extensive cat care experience. We believe that no-kill is the only responsible approach, that TNR works, and that cats are awesome!
What problem does it aim to solve?
We aim to address cat overpopulation by rescuing stray cats.Fixing them and finding homes. Feral cats were all fixed and returned to locations. We assist low-income owners by what we call a service in, spay and neutering their cats for free. We also take in cats from owners who have died from the DTES Vancouver.
When did you start/join it?
Year 2000
What made you want to get involved?
Karen Duncan and Maria Soroski saw a need for found outside newborn kittens that need bottle feeding (our speciality) and stray kittens and moms. So we started initially a kitten rescue. Many of these taken to local shelters died due to disease transmission. We started a network of volunteer foster homes to keep them safe and disease-free and then adopted them into loving homes. The second year when the local shelter called us to come get them we discovered these kittens were coming from the same addresses the previous year. When we arrived at the locations we discovered the finders were feeding up to 50 cats, feral and unsocialized from generations born outside. The finders were never able to capture the moms and bring them to shelters in the past. We researched and found out the best and humane solution was Trap Neuter Return to stop the births and make the colony healthy by providing food and medical care to these feral cats until they aged and passed away.
What was the situation like when you started?
The situation was horrendous and sad. The local shelters only took in cats that were brought to them. Any stray or abandoned cat, most of them un-fixed that were too scared to be picked up, were trapped and brought into vokra. Disease among the large numbers was rampant. All cats coming into Vokra were wormed, vaccinated, deflead and fixed.
How has it changed since?
We started to see a major change a few years later when the feral colonies were fixed no longer producing kittens. This has left us mostly with lost or abandoned unfixed tame stray cats. At the same time, we expanded to Burnaby and other close areas. Therefore the intake numbers went up, but the stray population in Vancouver went down.
The past few years since the pandemic has changed our landscape. We now see many owned cats producing kittens. Vet clinics were closed during the pandemic to veterinary spay neuters. Lately, the Inflation epidemic has hit low-income owners the hardest. Not being able to find affordable rentals and feed their own cat or spay-neuter it due to skyrocketing food, veterinary and spay-neuter costs tripling is leading to many more abandoned cats or owned cats producing kittens. The overdose crisis has left owned cats without homes. Donations are down for animal rescues across the province, so it has been increasingly difficult for Vokra to continue to do this important work.
What more needs to be done?
We are doing what needs to be done already. We can only continue if the community supports us and donates.
How can our readers help?
- Vokra needs volunteers.
- Donate to our valuable work.
- Adopt a cat or kitten.
- We appreciate corporate donations and also have a “Leave a legacy program” to guide you through leaving monetary or estate legacies.
Do you have any events coming up?
Check our website for upcoming fundraising events.
Where can we follow you?
Facebook | Instagram | Website
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