A government study that focused on a municipal shelter in New Mexico and that was published in 2018<\/a> reflects the potential and effectiveness of the programs that Wong cited.<\/p>\nIt still isn\u2019t enough\u2014you can tell by the number of Facebook pleas for cat rescuers and bottle feeders that greatly increase in number during kitten season. Long Beach Animal Care Services\u2019 euthanasia rates have gone up and down during the year, but at the end of each year they’re down significantly. The city hasn\u2019t analyzed the 2018 statistics as to cats and dogs, but the combined rates show the same good direction. No matter\u2014euthanasia rates for cats have always been greater than those for dogs. In 2017, nearly eight times the number of cats than dogs were put to sleep, and most of them are newborn kittens.<\/p>\n
Again thanks to social media, bottle feeders and rescuers do answer calls for them, and the staff at the shelter contacts rescuers when people bring in nursing mothers and kittens they think are abandoned. But cats are prolific breeders, and it\u2019s still never enough. There\u2019s still the sad reality of what you do when you have more neonatals than you can provide care for.<\/p>\n
Increased, affordable spay\/neuter would provide a good umbrella<\/h3>\n
Reduced intake rates notwithstanding, rescuers, trappers and shelter staff still hold their breath when kitten season approaches, and they don\u2019t have time to exhale. Wong continually asks for more community involvement and also has expressed outrage at the financial hurdles that owners and trappers have to climb over to get cats fixed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more spay\/neuter resources, more clinics doing feral cats and not raising the damn prices,\u201d she said. \u201cCommunity cats give birth to 99% of the kittens born in the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 1% to 2%, Wong said, are born from unaltered adult cats living with humans.<\/p>\n
Long Beach Animal Care Services offers vouchers for spay\/neuter procedures for ferals and other animals at a $40 dollar discount, but a sizeable copay remains for the pet owner and certainly for the cat trapper or rescuer. To Wong, this is like using blotter paper on an oil spill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vouchers are great, and we greatly appreciate them,\u201d Wong said. \u201cBut if the clinics cannot provide a reasonable price and the vouchers don\u2019t provide the entire cost, then why have them? The costs of spay\/neuter have risen so significantly that the person doing the trapping, be it community or rescue, often can\u2019t afford it anymore. Then, there are the shots. The more vaccinated cats, the less disease\u2014a highly vaccinated and fixed colony will mitigate the spread of disease.\u201d<\/p>\n
New director, new ideas, plans going into place<\/h3>\n
Staycee Dains, who took over as shelter director earlier this year, was San Jose\u2019s shelter supervisor for 10 years. She dealt with kitten season every year and came up with a couple of very good ideas over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a new kitten policy each year for six years,\u201d Dains said. \u201cWe\u2019d set the policy, live in the world, and start a planning season for the next season. But best-laid plans\u2014there was always something that needed to be adjusted. For instance, a few years ago [in San Jose], kittens had to be 1 pound and perfectly healthy in order to be taken in to the shelter [and not euthanized], and we also saw that most euthanasia procedures were on unweaned kittens. We found that it took as much time to measure the euthanasia drugs and monitor the vet as it did to bottle-feed them! Of course, none of our staff wanted to kill newborns, so they were happy to learn how to save them. We created a bottle-feeding program\u2014we\u2019d use little plastic tubs and put a little kitten in there, put in the heating pad, and they\u2019d stay there. We showed staff how to bottle-feed. Then, we\u2019d email and call for bottle-baby feeders. It could get chaotic\u2014the rescuers were late or didn\u2019t come. The following year, we looked for the right people to bottle-feed. Every year, we\u2019d save more lives, operate more efficiently\u2014and involve the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dains headed to Long Beach from San Jose in February, earlier than she\u2019d planned. She wanted to gear up the efforts in the shelter and the community to address the impending kitten season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that if we didn\u2019t have something solid in place, it\u2019d be chaos,\u201d Dains said. \u201c[Neonatal kittens] are the most difficult population to provide care to\u2014they need constant care. I\u2019m reluctant to start any program without a structure, and I\u2019m working very diligently to get it developed and get it working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dains stressed the need for a communications policy to see how all the individuals, organizations, staff members and services were going to work together. The shelter is now working on policy and procedure for kitten intake. Each kitten will need an admission record, a thorough medical exam, and a care plan. Record-keeping needs to be accurate with regard to baseline physical condition, temperature, and observations over time. Her staff is also tackling practical issues like making sure space for them all exists as well as bottle feeders to care for them while waiting for rescue pickup.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Intake of newborns] can happen 50 times a day, with 14 or 15 newborns every day,\u201d Dains said. \u201cWe\u2019re partnering with Little Lion, CatPAWS and Little Paws\u2014we want to be sure that we\u2019re taking excellent care of them so that when they come to get the kittens, they\u2019ll know exactly what they\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little Paws Kitten Nursery: big lifeboat for little babies<\/h3>\n
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