There is a crisis in animal shelters all over North and South Carolina. Despite local area groups efforts to promote low-cost and free spay/neuter shelters are still overflowing with pregnant or mother cats and their kittens, mother dogs and puppies. This article comes following the intake of 62 cats in two days at a rural shelter with very limited space.
While this article is primarily about the unwanted pets at Cabarrus County Animal Shelter in Concord, North Carolina, it’s a plea for help sent out by animal advocates across the U.S. The “South” is much worse, partly due to the attitude of many pet owners to allow their animals to procreate “at will” simply because they CAN.
From the cat owners who want to see their precious Fluffy have just one litter to the pit bull breeders who put their mama dogs through pregnancy after pregnancy for some quick cash, the shelters are the ones left to pick up the pieces when things get tough and the dog or cat is dumped like garbage.
One of those working tirelessly to help the unwanted cats and kittens at a North Carolina shelter is Jan Scere who stated
“It actually seems worse than last year to those who volunteer to help the animals at Cabarrus County Animal Shelter located in Concord.This is a completely avoidable situation if people would just spay neuter!”
On June 6th 40 cats and kittens were received by the Concord shelter, the day before 22 were logged into intake to a shelter already bursting at the seams. The shelter staff and volunteers are in great need of help at this small shelter. Many of the cats and kittens are owner surrenders who state they “Just can’t take care of or do not want all the cats and kittens anymore!”
The advocates and volunteers helping the Cabarrus Cats state there is a simple solution for that problem! SPAY AND NEUTER your one cat instead of showing up at the shelter with a mother and 10 kittens from various litters that may end up being euthanized if a rescue can not be found for them!
The saddest thing for the Concord shelter, Jan said, is the pregnant cats brought in as owner surrenders who birth at the shelter or worse miscarry their kittens due to the stress of being sent to the shelter away from the family they knew because they are pregnant.
Volunteers who help the cats at the Cabarrus County Shelter in Concord to find rescue are desperate to find help with fostering and transporting the animals to their rescues. A couple of volunteers can not save them alone they need help from local animal lovers who care. If you can. please help with sharing the cats Facebook Bios for funding and rescue, they also need people to temporary foster or to help transport the cats and kittens to rescue.
Please visit the Cabarrus Volunteers Facebook page and leave a message for Jan Scere or Marleen Jenkins if you can help in any way. They’ll get back to you ASAP or email Marleen Jenkins at jenkins.marleen@gmail.com.
Marleen did want everyone to know the cats and kittens being turned in are not feral and had been socialized. This tells her that the reason these kittens were born is people still refuse to spay and neuter pets and these are not coming from situations where trapping would be necessary for spaying and neutering. This tells clearly that it is the public’s indifference to the breeding and killing of pets.
If you can not volunteer your time you can also help by donating much-needed supplies like kitten and puppy food, especially canned Pate’ canned food for the kittens. The Cabarrus Shelter is listed on AMAZON for donation items that are needed for the animals.
If you are a rescue and you can help pull some of the Cabarrus Shelter cats please visit the Cabarrus County Animal Shelter website for updates on available cats and kittens and email for information on pulling cats and kittens (dogs as well) to animalshelter@cabarruscounty.uss or contact the shelter rescue and adoption coordinator directly at jrloos@cabarruscounty.us.
Rescue coordinators and animal crossposters, if YOUR shelter is in the middle of a population crisis, please feel free to comment on where your shelter is located and what you need from the public.
And please share this article with those you believe can help the Cabarrus County cats. Most only have until Thursday, June 8 at 3 p.m. This isn’t an empty threat and the shelter WILL kill them to make space for still more unwanted cats.
Elisa
Thanks, Michael!!
I have seen many articles in online media this year about overflowing animal shelters. So I can concur with you that this year may be a particularly bad year for unwanted cats and dogs. I feel that something must change. I feel that there needs to be an education program directed at cat owners and indeed dog owners who are reckless and careless with respect to animal welfare. It’s about personal attitude and taking responsibility for one’s actions. Too many people simply have a very sloppy attitude towards cat and dog ownership. Let’s educate them!
I have one more point to make and that is this. I did not ban this person. I “blocked” the person because I needed to watch what they were saying. Secondly, there are some very good people who visit this website and to contribute towards the site. It would be a dereliction of my duty if I let a one-off comment upset these people. I cannot let decent people become upset by one-off visitors who often have the desire to simply upset people and insult them.
You say that this person was speaking the “absolute truth”. But what is the truth? This is not about truth this is about opinion. You seem to have misunderstood the situation completely. Some people like to kill outdoor cats because they do not believe in TNR. Other people believe in TNR because it is more humane. If TNR is practised properly and on a wide scale then it has been proved to be effective. We have a duty to act humanely towards feral cats. We put them there. You appear to have avoided that issue. We know that killing cats does not provide the answer.
This is a difficult issue to deal with but ultimately killing cats is not the answer and it is not the truth. The truth lies in better cat ownership and humane treatment of unwanted cats and feral cats. I am afraid your bias has blinded you.
Yes, exactly. My feelings about this are like yours. But there are some people who simply hate TNR and these same people like to kill cats it seems to me.