Cats can breed year round, but we see a great rise in births during something referred to as “Kitten season”.
Kitten Season starts during Spring, peaks in the Summer and slows back down around Fall. This is one of the busiest times for shelters because they see a huge increase in cats being dumped.
Often babies are taken to the shelter with no mother and they are too young to survive on their own. Shelter staff and volunteers scramble to find fosters or end up fostering litters of kittens themselves as more come in at a rate that exceeds adoption demands—some are even too young to be seen by the public. Thus, available space for these animals are at a premium.
As a community we all have to work together, where it’s the shelters, rescues, fosters and the families, we have a responsibility to control the cat population—and even the dog population.
We can do curtail an increase in the cat population with spay and neuter and reduce the demand on shelter. In the long run, this will reduce the current overabundance of unwanted animals. If you have a pet now, I urge you to fix your animal.
To further help to reduce the number of unwanted animals entering the shelters, one can consider fostering, work with a rescue, volunteer with a Trap Neuter Return (TNR) group or with your local shelter. They are always looking for new volunteers.
With regards to feral cats, a shelter is the last resort for these cats. A feral cat does not belong in the confines of shelter after being in the “wild”, they have no idea how to trust humans or live in a kennel. Unfortunately, there is no magic powder to tame them, thus making them highly unadoptable.
When I volunteer at the shelter, the number of people who trap cats and bring them to the shelter hoping that the shelter has a definitive solution for each feline captured that will result in a happy ending is astonishing.
That said, I admit I was once that ignorant. I trapped the neighborhood ferals and took them to the shelter unaware of what their fate may have been. Once educated, I learned Trap, Neuter, and Release programs are a better response to feral cats.
There are only three reasons you should trap a cat or kitten:
- If a cat is injured or sick
- If you are working with or getting assistance from a TNR group
- Plan to trap neuter/spay and release a cat back to its original location
If you have found an abandoned litter of kittens, otherwise you should leave the cats alone.
If you cannot tell the different between a feral cat and the neighbors pet, the first tip is a collar and tag. There may also be a tipped ear.
A couple weeks ago while at the shelter, a woman pulled up and explained she had found a cat that she feared was lost. It was explained to her that cats often roam in their own neighborhood and that she could very well have picked up the cat out of its own yard and that he may not have been too lost.
She has the poor cat loose in the back seat of her car where it was frozen with fear.
Thankfully, the woman decided it would be best to take the cat back to where she had found it.
With kitten season upcoming let’s all come together as a community and lower the intake number of cats and kittens entering the shelter system,
- Spay and neuter your cats even if they are indoor only
- Don’t trap ferals unless you are part of a TNR group or being assisted by one
- Don’t pick up “lost” cats and take to the shelter. Some cats are micro chipped, so maybe take to be scanned, but they are more than likely not lost or will find their way home if left in the area you saw them. Don’t be too quick to feed them. Hungry cats will go home.
- Microchip your cats so that if they do end up at the shelter they can be reunited with you.
Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Resources
Community Concern for Cats
(925) 938-CATS
www.communityconcernforcats.org
Contra Costa Humane Society
Spay/Neuter Assistance Program for low income / domestic & feral cats
(925) 279-2247, ext. 305
http://www.cchumane.org
East Bay SPCA
Oakland: 510-639-7387
Dublin: 925-479-9674
www.eastbayspca.org
Feral Cat Foundation
925-829-9098
www.feralcatfoundation.org
Fix Our Ferals
510-433-9446
www.fixourferals.org
HALO – Homeless Animals Lifeline Organization
Feral cats and domestic cats for low-income residents
925-473-4642
Oakley, Antioch, Brentwood
www.eccchalo.org
HARP – Homeless Animals Rescue Program
925-431-8546
www.harp-rescue.org
SNIP – Spay Neuter Impact Program
Feral/stray cats only – in traps
925-473-5027
www.snipcat.org
Well Pet Vet Clinic Veterinary Hospital
Dogs, feral and domestic cats
925-427-4300
http://www.wellpetvetclinic.com/
Information provided by Kristy Keusch
2 comments
On debarking from Amtrak last Wed. night and going to my car parked on the street I saw several cats roaming around. Earlier in the morning when I was about to board, again a number of them roaming and one catching a bird while one almost struck by a car(one of the major reasons for cat deaths).
I love animals, but this is out of hand! Antioch is the laughing stock among Contra Coat Cities.
That property right there by the train station, the Hard House, smells so bad you have to run by there. Even the high school campus near by is bad.
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