Lenawee Humane Society has been inundated with calls regarding cats and kittens. Every day we receive at least 15 calls regarding cats and kittens that have been dropped off, abandoned or that have recently been born and are taking over homes and neighborhoods. Many of these callers are desperate to help these animals and LHS would love to help every one of them. Unfortunately, the reality is we can’t. We are a no kill shelter and therefore we will not euthanize animals simply to make room for more animals. Besides that is NOT the answer! Our shelter has been filled to capacity with newborn kittens, many of which have lost their mother and have had to be bottle fed. We have created a Foster Care Program, which has been very successful in nursing these kittens back to health and preparing them for adoption. Our staff members have taken home kittens, getting up every hour and a half to two hours to feed these babies. We have held a Special “Feline Friday”, adopting cats and kittens to good homes for only $5. Every cat adopted from LHS is spay/neutered prior to adoption. We are also considering the possibility of implementing a TNR (trap, neuter and release) Program, though we have a ways to go before we can implement that program. While these are huge strides in the prevention of cat overpopulation, there is still much more work to be done…..and we need your help! The community needs to be educated on the facts about cats and we all need to get involved (cat owner, cat lover, or not) because if the problem is not addressed, our entire community could potentially be inundated with cats!!
DID YOU KNOW: Cats can become pregnant as young as 4 months old (though generally at about 8 or 9 months old); if not fixed they’ll have about 3 litters a year, with an average of 4 to 5 kittens per litter. That equals about 15 kittens per year per female cat…..you do the math! It is important to join in the fight to prevent overpopulation because it could become everyone’s problem. Have your cats spay/neutered and help spay/neuter the strays in your neighborhood. For more information on how you can help, or to have someone from LHS help educate your school, community or Neighborhood Association, call us at 517-263-3463.
