EVERETT – Summer is here and kitten season is in full swing.
That means the arrival of hundreds of cuddly little fur balls with boundless energy cute as, well, kittens.
The yearly cycle also causes crowding problems at Everett Animal Shelter, where about 500 “adoptable” cats were killed last year for space.
Shelter workers and volunteers try to find homes for all of cats that aren’t too sick or aggressive to place.
But every year, the state’s fourth busiest shelter receives more cats than it can hold or find homes for.
Unlike some local private shelters that can restrict the number of animals they take in, Everett Animal Shelter – which contracts with Snohomish County and nine cities – can’t close its doors when it is full.
Roughly three in 10 animals taken to the Everett shelter last year were put down.
“We’re constantly taking in what society doesn’t want,” said Bud Wessman, the shelter’s director.
In an effort to reduce the number of cats euthanized to make space for incoming strays and unwanted pets, the Everett Animal Shelter is slashing prices on adoptions, spaying and neutering and vaccinations of cats.
And it is dropping the price for adopting adult cats, which are much harder to find homes for than kittens.
Other Snohomish County shelters are also offering incentives in hopes of finding homes for cats.
As of Thursday, the popular pet adoption Web site Petfinder.com listed more than 500 cats up for adoption in Snohomish County. That includes about 300 adoptable cats at Purrfect Pals in Arlington, which claims to be the world’s largest cat-only adoption organization and sanctuary.
But as long as many people don’t spay and neuter their cats, the likelihood of housing all the animals is great.
On a bad day, the Everett shelter must take in as many as 25 kittens.
Wessman said it’s common to see the same people bringing in boxes of unwanted kittens year after year.
Wendy Brown, with Northwest Organization for Animal Health in Stanwood, said irresponsible cat owners are to blame for the crowding problem.
“Controlling that population (of unneutered animals) is what’s going to take care of the number of homeless pets,” she said.
NOAH works with the Everett Animal Shelter and other groups to offer cheap clinics where people on low incomes can have pets spayed or neutered.
“There’s just no excuse (for not having your cat fixed),” said Catherine Mitchell, an Everett Animal Shelter volunteer. “It’s not as expensive as it once was, and there are all kinds of low-cost clinics.”
Mitchell spends several hours every Wednesday socializing with the cats, which often are stressed and longing for attention.
She opens cages and pets them, and writes observations of their temperament on information cards for potential adoptive owners to read.
Sadly, the shelter can only keep the cats for about a month.
Older cats and black cats, no matter how friendly, are the least likely to find homes.
So volunteers try to steer a little traffic toward those cats when people walk in to find a new pet.
“A lot of them want to see the kittens right away,” said Lisa Olson, a volunteer with the shelter who wants to go to school to become an animal control officer. “I tell them ‘There’s an older kitten right here.’”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
