CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA — It’s the time of 12 months when hundreds of kittens in California want additional help. Kitten season is upon us, and with it comes the elevated want for help at native shelters and rescue organizations.
We know the way cute an “onslaught of kittens” sounds however these teams face vital challenges from an inflow of kittens. While extremely lovely, kittens require a lot care and assets. The impacted Contra Costa County organizations are Community Concern for Cats, Joybound People + Pets (previously ARF) and the Contra Costa Humane Society, in accordance with Pet Food Express.
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During April, Pet Food Express, which is headquartered in Concord, runs a month-long consciousness marketing campaign to help these and 80 different native nonprofit rescues and shelters throughout California’s kitten season.
Wait, What Is Kitten Season?
Kitten season happens every year, normally spring by summer time, when most kittens are born, and subsequently surrendered to shelters and rescues. This schedule is a relationship between cats’ biology, climate patterns and daylight patterns.
In quick, cats’ warmth cycles correspond to the quantity of daylight every day. When there are 14-16 hours of daylight, cats produce much less melatonin, affecting the a part of their brains that triggers their warmth cycles. This results in mating, and a brief two months later: kittens.
Unfortunately, as a result of all of the cats in a single space expertise the identical daylight and climate patterns, they’re all on the same schedule and that is the place it may well change into a problem. Shelters and rescues cannot sustain with the sudden inflow of kittens and have began a motion to advertise fostering, adopting, and donating earlier than kitten season begins, to deal with the onslaught of kittens.
In most areas of the nation, kitten season is linked with a selected time of 12 months. While that is additionally true for California, the temperate local weather means kitten season could happen twice a 12 months—typically March and June/July— or in some areas even be sustained almost all 12 months spherical.
Ways To Help
Through April 28, neighborhood members wishing to take part within the kitten season marketing campaign can log on to Petfood.specific/kitten-season or walk into any of the 66 Pet Food Express shops.
Pet Food Express outlines three impactful methods to have an effect on hundreds of California kittens in want of a brand new home:
- Adopt! Open your home to a kitten or cat. Pet Food Express will assist animal lovers discover a native rescue or shelter. Plus, the corporate will present strategies on the most effective meals and care merchandise to provide the kitten to help an extended, more healthy life.
- Foster. Not prepared for a long-term dedication? Join Pet Food Express’ Rescue Reserves —a database of foster households — to change into a foster home and get matched with an area rescue with needy kittens. Once a person or household indicators up, their info is available to the community of over 139 rescue and shelter companions by the Rescue Reserves program.
- Give. one hundred pc of your monetary contribution goes to buy provides like meals, litter and toys for native rescues and shelters to proceed their superb work of strong foster, undertake and spay/neuter packages.
“Kitten season places critical pressure on California’s animal rescue community from April by November,” stated Megan Kniepkamp, neighborhood supervisor for Pet Food Express. “The single greatest approach to assist is by fostering. Every pet in a foster home implies that two lives are saved: the pet within the foster home and the pet who takes their place within the shelter.”
In 2023, Pet Food Express collected and donated over $217,430 in merchandise to those organizations. This 12 months, the retailer goals to make a fair greater impression.
