Palm Beach Failing their Own Mission Statement?

Elisa Black-Taylor, the Greenville Pets Examiner writes on examiner.com that Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control (PBCACCA) are euthanising cats that should be adopted and not employing their network of foster carers efficiently.

Foster carers who work with PBCACCA state that they’re worried that they will have to hand their foster cats back whereupon PBCACCA will euthanise them. This is stressful for cat fosterers.

PBCACCA has placed a limit of one cat per fosterer despite some fosterers saying they can cope with more. I am not sure why the limit exists.

PBCACCA state:

“A small group of the same people step up over and over. We need more people to foster, to care.”

Elisa writes that PBCACCA are shifting blame for the euthanasia of healthy cats and kittens onto foster carers rather than taking responsibility themselves.

One particular female cat and her kittens are highlighted. Her apparently healthy kittens were euthanised and it is quite possible that the same fate awaits their mother (see header image).

This single act appears to go against the PBCACCA mission statement:

“Provide safe shelter and veterinary care for lost, abandoned and unwanted animals….Humanely euthanize injured and sick animals.”

I wonder how often they fail to meet their admirable mission objective? That said, the reviews on Google Maps tell of a place that is not at all bad (see image).

I have stated myself that cat foster carers should not adopt the cats in their care because it undermines the reasons for fostering which is to improve cat welfare generally. However, in America, sometimes foster carers feel compelled to adopt their cost cat(s) because the only alternative is death. My statement is at odds with what is happening in Palm Beach and probably other cities and counties across the USA.

The situation in Palm Beach seems unsatisfactory. Funding does not appear to be a problem at Palm Beach.

The problem as I see it is this: there are more unwanted and homeless cats in the US than in the UK. In the UK we can take a more relaxed attitude about cat fostering and I can make the sort of statement that I made because there is less pressure on foster carers.

When there is a lot of pressure on rescue facilities it is handed down to their network of foster carers. Foster carers are a safety valve for a shelter. There are limits, though.

If I am correct in saying that there are more unwanted cats in the UK than USA, and that at Palm Beach, PBCACCA has reached its capacity then the only solution is to do more work on preventative measures. This means working with the community to reduce the creation of unwanted cats.

I say they have reached their capacity because they are killing healthy cats. There can be no other viable reason. Or am I being naive?