A prolonged kitten season has extended the influx of kittens at Central Alberta Humane Society.
“This kitten season has been especially long. We’ve actually had no end to kittens coming. We still have kittens in shelter right now. We just had a mother cat and kittens dropped off in our outside drop off box at night a couple of weeks ago,” said Tara Hellewell, Central Alberta Humane Society executive director, on Tuesday.
The lengthy kitten season may be due to favourable weather, or maybe more people are making sure cats are caught and brought to the shelter.
“I wish I had the answers.”
She said the shelter’s rooms and cages remain full of pets needing forever homes.
“We still have a really long waiting list of animals coming in, cats especially.”
One particularly sad story — but with a happy ending — involved a homeless kitten the society named Braveheart who needed jaw surgery earlier in October.
“His entire jaw had been degloved, so the skin had been ripped from his bottom jaw,” Hellewell said.
He would have needed to be euthanized if he had not been able to eat when he was brought in.
“After a few days, the healing was going really well so it will be able to reattach. He’s just a little fighter.”
Braveheart was found hanging around a vehicle in Sylvan Lake and was likely injured by the vehicle’s moving parts.
To assist pet owners and curb the animal population, the society started offering a low-income spay/neuter program this year. To access the program people must be on AISH, receive social assistance, or be below the federal low income cut off before taxes. Proof of eligibility is required and a small fee must still be paid.
“We’ve had lots and lots of people coming in to get their pets fixed from low-income families so that’s good. At least we know that program is reaching the people it needs to,” Hellewell said.
But she said more must still be done to educate the public to spay and neuter cats and to keep them indoors. Hopefully Red Deer develops a cat licensing bylaw soon which has helped reduce cat population problems in Calgary.
“The message is just not getting out there. We have to keep working harder for cats.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter