Animal Volunteer Says Nothing is new on Cats Going to Shelters

We received this email that we want to share with you as a response to our foreclosure article about pets being left behind.

I read with interest the title 'Abandoned pets causing crisis at Area Shelters' and my first thought was yeah, NOTHING NEW about that. I have volunteered at a local no-kill shelter for more than 20 years and I always know when the local Humane Society is 'full' – boxes of cats are left on our doorstep. It's not a new problem, Dr. Debra – it's an old problem getting further out of control.

Not kittens – adult cats. Our small private rescue operation is full – we have over 30 cats and kittens. We do not house dogs at our facility – they are fostered with families.

Dogs are noisy; they will bark and alert the person renting the 'Mother-in-law' house on our lot. Our local humane society is in the country – and dogs are left there at night – tied to anything secure.

Cats are quieter and are not found till the first person arriving finds them, or the renter sees the box leaving for work and alerts the shelter manager. We will have to call animal control when the next box is left – we are over capacity. We cannot risk our license and the lives of the cats we care for by taking in the abandoned cats.

I have fielded phone calls – the responsible owners – owners sobbing that they have to move out of their house and cannot take their cat or dog. Some of the heartbreak of foreclosure is on the other end of my phone. I thank them for trying to re-home their pet, that they are doing the right thing.

Four cats were abandoned last Wed – beautiful, loving, and very frightened. Two were found Thursday morning. Friday morning the 'drop and run' person was nearly caught, they took the box back & ran. I hope they don't abandon the poor pets outside.

What can be done to help the situation? The same thing we've advocated for YEARS – SPAY and NEUTER YOUR PETS! Millions of unwanted pets are destroyed every year in animal control/municipal shelters every year. For the simple reason that there are not enough families able to adopt that pet.

Karen Hoover