Santa Rosa County fights feline surge with month-to-month ‘Community Cat Days’
by Yona Gavino
WEAR
SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. — Warmer climate means you’ll be seeing much more cats and kittens.
Many shelters in Northwest Florida are coping with an amazing variety of kittens.
“Kitten season is supposed to start when it gets a little bit warm,” said Randy Lambert, chief of animal services in Santa Rosa County. “By most accounts, kitten season around here is about 12 months out of the year. It just really doesn’t stop. But it gets hot and heavy when it gets hot outside.”
Lambert stated Santa Rosa County just lately held what’s referred to as a “Community Cat Day” as a way to cut down on feral cats breeding.
“We feel like we’re really putting a dent in the population with these Community Cat Days that we’re having,” he said. “We’re altering around 40 cats at a time each time we have these. And we’re trying to do these once or twice a month. These are feral cats that would be populating. It doesn’t take long for two cats to turn into several hundred in a short amount of time.”
Lambert stated it’s exhausting to discover a shelter that’ll settle for dogs, cats, puppies and kittens as a result of they simply don’t have the area. That’s why one of the best motion is to spay or neuter your cat.
Or you possibly can participate in Santa Rosa County’s “Community Cat Days” held a couple of times a month.
“We took in 48 cats, altered them after which they have been returned again to the place they got here from this morning,” Lambert stated.
The feral cats have to be introduced in to Santa Rosa County Animal Services in some type of lure or cage, which you’ll hire from them.
The cats will probably be mounted and get a fast examination by a vet to verify they’re wholesome. It features a rabies shot and their ear tipped, which reveals folks they’ve been mounted.
And then they’re launched again into their kitty colony.
So what when you discover a kitten that’s actually young?
“Whenever you find kittens, especially when they’re under 8 weeks old, mom is around somewhere,” Lambert said. “The absolute best place for these kittens is with mom. Even if you bring them into us, we’re going to keep them with mom, because that’s how they get the nutrients they need to make sure they’re going to grow up to be healthy cats.”
Everett Animal Welfare Group can also be attempting to assist curb the cat inhabitants.
We talked to the president of the group at an adoption occasion at PetSmart.
“The trap neuter return class is a free class. It’s twice a month,” Cindra Anderson said. “The first and third Saturdays of the month. If they go to our website, Everett Animal Welfare, under the info tab, there’s a form that says TNR registration.”
Anderson stated other than adoption occasions, it additionally teaches residents how they’ll get extra concerned in getting stray cats mounted so the inhabitants doesn’t develop.
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