Cat season crowds humane societies in summer months
Post-Tribune (IN)
July 7, 2005
The dog days of summer may not have arrived yet, but the cat days are well under way.
Local animal shelters say their cages are overflowing with unwanted cats and kittens, part of the annual summertime influx of felines workers call "cat season."
"I don't care if you have spaces for 20 animals or if you have room for 100, you're going to be filled," said Betty Clayton, who opened the Humane Society of Northwest Indiana in Gary two years ago.
Clayton took in 54 cats in June, and has had to turn away others.
Officials at the two largest shelters in the area, humane society operations in Hobart and Munster, say they are stuck with more kittens than they can hold, and few are being adopted out.
The seasonal surge mirrors the feline reproductive cycle, as cats in summer give birth to kittens conceived in the spring mating season.
But even though shelters know cat season is an annual event, there's no way to prepare when it starts raining cats and cats, said Carol Konopacki, director of the Hobart Humane Society.
Konopacki's group, which also serves as animal control for Hobart, Merrillville and surrounding unincorporated areas, received nearly 250 cats and kittens in June alone -- double the number they see in winter months.
Because few were adopted -- and others were feral or sickly -- shelter workers had to euthanize more than half of them.
"It's cat season, and everybody wants to get rid of their cats," she said. "What do you do when you get 40 in one day and adopt out five?"
A box of 16, 2-week-old kittens was waiting on the front steps of the Humane Society Calumet Area in Munster when Executive Director Cathi Daniels arrived at work Wednesday morning.
Daniels, whose shelter is the largest no-kill shelter in the region, already has more than 100 cats in her care or in foster homes.
"We have a special. When you get one kitten (for a $75 fee), you get another one free," she said.
When shelters turn away cats, reluctant owners turn them loose -- increasing the ranks of the stray cats and further increasing the burden on local animal control officials.
Those animals fortunate enough to get a cage at a Humane Society shelter in Gary and Munster can stay, so long as they remain mentally and physically healthy, which can be difficult for animals that don't get much human contact.
With 75 volunteer "foster parents," the Munster shelter can send most of its surplus kittens to temporary homes, but that's not yet an option in Gary, Clayton said.
Budget and capacity pressures mean that each month about three or four cats -- those that are sick, psychotic or very old -- are euthanized at her shelter, she said.
"There are worse things than death for these animals," Clayton said. "It is the absolute worst thing to play God over these animals."
Owners need to spay and neuter their pets or make sure they can find homes for kittens, Konopacki said.
"People say they want to let their cat have kittens so their children can see the miracle of birth," she said.
"They should have to take them here when we put them down so they can see the miracle of death," she said.
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