Animal shelters throughout the Netherlands are overruning with kittens, RTL Nieuws reports after talking with numerous animal ambulances and shelters. Young cats and kittens have actually been disposed “extremely often” this summertime.
“We have been around for over 50 years, but we have never been so full. This year is really bad,” a representative for the animal ambulance in The Hague informed the broadcaster. Their healthcare facility typically just takes in ill or hurt cats. But now they likewise look after healthy disposed kittens due to the fact that the shelters are complete. “Normally, 30 cats can stay in our hospital, but now there are more than a hundred. And that number doesn’t seem to be going down.”
The animal ambulance thinks the pandemic lags the issue. “A lot of people then thought: oh nice, we’re getting a cat. But owners didn’t have their cats spayed or neutered. The result of that is now on the street,” the representative said.
“Our fears are coming true,” Gerrit de Boom of the animal ambulance in Vianen said about this “very bad development.” According to him, individuals get a cat and believe raising one litter of kittens will be enjoyable. “But they forget that thousands of kittens are born at the same time. Now they want to go on holiday, but the boarding houses are full, or they think they are too expensive. So they think: then on the street.”
The animal shelter in Gorinchem needs to utilize its conference room as an additional shelter for the lots of kittens it’s taking care of. “Last year, I already saw the problem coming, but it has definitely gotten worse this year. The kittens are also almost all sick. They have runny noses, inflamed eyes, diarrhea, you name it,” a representative said. She likewise blames the coronavirus pandemic, “when everyone wanted affection from a pet.”
The Direnlot Foundation, which supports about 300 animal shelters and animal ambulances, “constantly hears cries for help,” a representative informed RTL. “We see kittens being dumped en masse, but also rabbits, rodents, and turtles.”
Early this month, PvdD parliamentarian Frank Wassenberg asked parliamentary concerns about the overruning animal shelters. “If the minister had carried out the wishes of parliament in 2018, the problem would have been much less,” he informed RTL, describing an embraced movement for a compulsory reflection duration for the purchase of animals. “A reflection period will significantly reduce the number of impulse purchases. But, the Minister has so far refused to look into this. That is extremely frustrating. And you see where it leads: again, huge numbers of discarded and dumped pets.”
The PvdD likewise promoted a compulsory microchip for cats, which Minister Piet Adema of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality consented to early this year. “And I will continue to insist in the coming period to arrange it quickly,” Wassenberg said. A microchip would make it much easier to locate the owner of a discarded cat.
