CMPD Animal Care and Control is running out of space to house the growing cat population. Fosters and volunteer kittens can help ease the burden.
CHARLOTTE, NC – A population boom this kitten season has CMPD Animal Care and Control asking for help caring for its incoming kittens.
The shelter said it is running out of space to house all the young cats, asking that fosters take one or more home until the animals can be adopted. People interested in helping can sign up to be a foster, then come to the main Byrum Drive location during business hours and let reception know how many kittens they are willing to take in.
Fosters may choose to bring a carrier for easy transportation.
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Anyone who wants to help but can’t take a kitten home can choose to sign up as a volunteer and feed and socialize the shelter’s cats. Right now, there are “bottle babies” or very small kittens that need help feeding. An application and training process is required before volunteers can begin handling the cats.
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According to the animal advocacy group Best Friends, “Kitten season is the time of year when animal shelters are overrun with kittens because birth rates are highest.” The nonprofit notes that certain factors, including warmer weather, make it more conducive for cats to mate and give birth in the spring and continue to reproduce during the warmer months. He calls kitten season one of the “most challenging times of the year in shelters across the country.”
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One of the reasons for this massive influx is that well-meaning people often collect litters of kittens they find outside and rush them to shelters, mistakenly assuming that this will save their lives.
Unfortunately, these good intentions can actually put kittens at greater risk of being killed. What many people don’t realize is that the safest plan for kittens – and one that also lessens the burden on shelters – is to leave the kittens where they are, watch for the mother cat’s return to make sure she is taking care of them. their babies and, when they are old enough, humanely pick up the family for spay/neuter surgery.
Contact Vanessa Ruffes at vruffes@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
