Too many kittens cause shelters problems in Fayette County
A feral cat is pictured at an abandoned building in Uniontown on Monday.
A feral cat is pictured on Lemon Street in Uniontown.
Above, kittens, all named after Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavors, are pictured at Fayette Friends of Animals in Uniontown and are ready for adoption. The shelter receives phone calls daily about homeless cats but are unable to take them all in because there isn’t enough space.
At left, Shannon Courie, shelter worker at Fayette Friends of Animals in Uniontown, holds Marciliene, one of 10 cats who was dropped off in containers overnight at the shelter. According to Tanya McConkey, a volunteer and board member, “Spaying and neutering your pets is the only answer” to cat and dog overpopulation.
Amanda Steen | Herald-Standard
Shannon Courie, shelter worker at Fayette Friends of Animals in Uniontown, holds Marciliene, one of 10 cats who was dropped off in containers overnight at the shelter. According to Tanya McConkey, a volunteer and board member, "Spaying and neutering your pets is the only answer" to cat and dog overpopulation.
Spring is in the air — that time of year when new life abounds.
It is also a time of year known as “kitten season,” a time of year when animal shelters everywhere are overflowing with unwanted feline litters, often dumped at shelter doors — or worse.
And Fayette County is no exception.
“Oh, my, yes, it’s definitely bad,” said Tanya McConkey, a Fayette Friends of Animals board member, of the 30 calls-a-day on average the no-kill shelter receives from people wanting to drop off unwanted litters from spring through mid-summer.
“The phone constantly rings to take in cats,” said the shelter’s office manager, April Gaines. “We have to turn people away because we are already full. People say, ‘Why can’t you take in one more cat?'”
Some people avoid being turned away by simply dumping their litters, McConkey said. One litter the shelter is caring for was left at the gates of the property and are now referred to as the “gate litter.” Another was found by a concerned citizen, duct-taped shut in a box that was then discarded in a Dumpster.
Shelters must be mindful of how many animals they take in, McConkey added, because overcrowding leads to stressed cats, and stressed cats get sick,
ultimately costing more in the medical attention they receive.
But the reality is that shelters, which rely heavily on donations and volunteers, are already full, and no more can be taken in until those awaiting adoption have found homes, she said. And while the overflow of kittens sometimes make their way into the homes of volunteer foster parents, even those resources are stretched thin.
“It’s really bad,” agreed Tammy McGregor, a humane officer with the Fayette County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Uniontown. McGregor too often ends up with the unpleasant task of euthanizing cats when those who would care for them are just too overwhelmed. And many more cats that are left to fend for themselves on the street often get hit by cars or are killed by humans or other animals.
There is only one solution, say those who deal with the problem of feline overpopulation on a routine basis: spaying and neutering.
“Granted there are organizations that spay and neuter feral cats, but not enough people are spaying and neutering their own cats,” McGregor said. “It just doesn’t make sense. It’s cheaper in the long run to get a female spayed. If a female gets pregnant, she eats more, then they have kittens to feed on top of that.”
According to estimates by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, one female cat and her offspring can produce 370,000 kittens in a seven-year period. And experts agree that cats are extremely prolific in their reproductive abilities, with females going into heat as young as 5 or 6 months of age.
“That’s why cats are such a problem,” McGregor said. “Spaying and neutering is the only solution, even if you just neuter the male, because a male can produce more kittens than a female in one lifetime.”
According to estimates published on the Humane Society of the United States’ webpage, shelters care for 6 million to 8 million cats and dogs, about 3 million to 4 million of which are euthanized each year in the country.
That number is down considerably from the estimated 12 million to 20 million euthanized at U.S. shelters in the 1970s and represents substantial progress , but experts agree that more needs to be done to strike at the roots of animal overpopulation.
And, locally, experts agree that the need far exceeds the resources available.
“There’s a horrible need for low-cost spay and neuter services,” McConkey said.
While a Pittsburgh-based mobile spay and neuter clinic sometimes comes to Fayette County to offer spay and neuter assistance, Gaines said the program is fully booked in other areas of the state over the next several months.
Spay and neuter services performed by private-practice veterinarians can range from $250-$400, said Andrea Null with Angels of Mercy Animal Rescue and Adoption Agency, a Fayette County organization of volunteers who hope to establish a site for a shelter in the near future. Volunteers for the non-profit agency currently work out of their homes.
The agency works to find homes for animals and also links people to the few free and low-cost spay and neuter resources available in the county, said Null, who screens callers to determine which programs they might be eligible for.
“We only have a couple of resources available in Fayette County, but if they call, we have several different ways to go about getting them help,” she said.
Through those resources, pet owners may be eligible to have their cat spayed or neutered plus receive a rabies shot for as little as $55. In other cases, applicants may receive a voucher for a free spay or neuter.
“I don’t know why people wouldn’t utilize it,” Null said.
McGregor said she can’t even begin to calculate how many cats are euthanized locally each year, but said that more cats than dogs are put down.
“It’s not a job I take lightly, but sometimes it has to be done,” McGregor added of the distasteful task of ending an animal’s life.
For information of pet adoption, contact Fayette Friends of Animals at 724-245-7815 or www.fayettefriendsofanimals.net, or contact the SPCA at 724-438-3121 or by visiting the North Union Township shelter at 215 Rankin Airshaft Rd.
For information on pet adoption, and on free or low cost spaying and neutering, contact Angels of Mercy at 724-317-5558.