Group says saboteur is preventing rescue of cat with head stuck in bird feeder

The Canadian Press Aug 2, 2014 07:07:28 PM

BRANDON, Man. – Searchers who have been trying to rescue a cat with a bird feeder stuck on its head in Manitoba say their efforts to trap the hapless animal are being sabotaged.

The Brandon and Area Lost Animals group began setting out traps over a week ago after the cat, nicknamed Butterscotch, was spotted with the feeder on its head in a Brandon neighbourhood.

The cat couldn’t be easily captured because it could see out of one eye and was still able to run, and even jump, to evade the rescuers.

The group set traps, but says a man in the neighbourhood has shone lights, clapped his hands and used other techniques to scare Butterscotch away.

They say they’ve moved their traps onto private property, but their traps have been found and purposely damaged.

They say volunteers have spotted a man at night moving around the traps and shining bright lights, but that he moves back onto his own property by the time police arrive.

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UPDATE: 

Butterscotch the cat no longer has head stuck in bird feeder

Brandon animal group trapped him, bird feeder broke off in cage

Posted: Aug 09, 2014 

The Brandon and Area Lost Animals group said it trapped Butterscotch and the bird feeder that was stuck on the feline's head broke off. (Facebook)

Butterscotch, the Brandon cat with a bird feeder stuck on his head, has been caught and is no longer wearing the bird feeder that has been stuck on his head for about the last two weeks. 

BALA, the Brandon and Area Lost Animals group that has been trying to trap the feline, posted Saturday on its Facebook page that Butterscotch is safe. 

The group said Butterscotch is being checked out by the Grand Valley Animal Clinic and he's in good shape. 

The posting said while Butterscotch was in the trap, he broke the bird feeder, "exposing his handsome face to everyone."

Source

Prairie butterfly sliding towards extinction

Rarer than a Panda! Researchers working to save endangered butterfly

July 2013. Researchers from both Canada and the United States are rushing to figure out why a small, brown and orange winged butterfly is dying out quickly.

 (Courtesy Erik Runquist/Minnesota Zoo)

Massive population crash

Listed as an endangered species in Manitoba in 2012 and listed nationally as threatened, the Poweshiek skipperling butterfly population has dropped dramatically throughout North America. In Canada, it is known to only inhabit 17 fields in south-eastern Manitoba, primarily on the Nature Conservancy of Canada's Tall Grass Prairie Natural Area. In the United States, the closest population appears only in a handful of sites in Iowa and North Dakota.

Researchers from the University of Winnipeg, Minnesota Zoo and University of Michigan are now just outside of Winnipeg performing valuable research on this declining species. Since the adult butterfly is active for only two to three weeks, researchers are using this critical time to collect information on the Poweshiek skipperling's genetics and genetic diversity to save this important butterfly from extinction.

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