07/12/2022
We are experiencing a devastating crisis in Kitsap County.
People are finding un-owned kittens and pregnant cats – some as young as five months old themselves – in alarming numbers all over the county. Some are found in “sibling” groups – a family of female siblings barely out of kittenhood themselves, all caring together for multiple litters of kittens! These new mama cats with their litters, pregnant cats, and litters of motherless kittens are found – either dumped or born out there -- in sheds and garages and barns, underneath houses and trailers, behind dumpsters in business parking lots and mobile parks, in colonies in the middle of Kitsap neighborhoods, and out in the outskirts of people’s rural properties. And currently there is ALMOST NOTHING we can do to help the vast majority of these unwanted, homeless cats and kittens, or even to slow down the snowball effect that is driving this disaster.
Of course, populations of un-owned / feral cats have always been a concern, but in Kitsap County in the past decade or so, a lot of work had gone into Community Cats programs, barn cat programs, low-cost spay and neuter clinics, and Trap/Neuter/Return efforts – and the problem, although not going away, was somewhat under control. Since Covid-19 shutdowns forced the closures of veterinarian offices, shelters, and spay/neuter clinics beginning in early 2020, though, this issue has gone from a concern to a catastrophe for West Sound cats – and the reopened shelters and clinics now find themselves woefully ill-equipped to even begin to address this tragedy.
Our shelters and rescues here in the West Sound, already stressed by short staffing and continued Covid safety concerns, are now well beyond the saturation point with cats and kittens. PAWS of Bremerton and PAWS BI/NK don’t take in found (stray) cats, and are both full of owner-surrendered pets and have recently had to begin denying those. Humane Society of Mason County, lacking a physical shelter space, has cats and kittens stuffed into every foster home available to them. Kitten rescue of Mason County is overflowing and hemorrhaging funds trying to care for more cats than their space and system were ever prepared for.
Kitsap Humane Society is overwhelmed with stray cat and kitten intake. Recently, Kitsap Humane Society has suspended owner surrenders of cats needing new homes due to lack of space, (causing some of these pets to be abandoned when owners move), and is regularly turning away a lot of concerned citizens who are trying to do the right thing by bringing in found cats and kittens as strays.
Although there is a “barn cat program” at KHS, there is no dedicated feral/community cat/unsocialized cat kenneling area or staff specifically trained in socializing or caring for feral cats, so the shelter will only accept cats who are less social when they already have a barn cat adopter ready to take them, and it is not a priority.
Kitsap Humane Society veterinary services has been attempting to help the cat overpopulation problem in our county with low-cost spay/neuter appointments for low-income community members, and Trap/Neuter/Return services for Community Cats. Unfortunately, the veterinary needs of the social pets actually admitted to the shelter as strays and owner surrenders (as well as adoptable pets transferred from out-of-state high-kill shelters) take precedence over the need for spay/neuter or vaccine services for owned pets or feral or Community Cats. This means that people attempting to use the KHS surgery scheduler to make an appointment for their pet or for a TNR surgery are unable day after day to find even one opening. Trapped cats then get re-released un-neutered, outdoor kittens grow to a fertile age before any can be spayed/neutered, and people give away or abandon un-altered, un-vaccinated cats because they cannot deal with continued reproduction and veterinary needs of pregnant cats and kittens.
The small dedicated cadre of volunteers in our region who have the time, resources, knowledge and desire to provide Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) assistance are now completely stymied in their efforts by the total lack of Spay/Neuter surgery spots at Kitsap and Pierce County’s shelters and low-cost clinics. There are literally hundreds of cats needing spay/neuter surgeries for every available surgery appointment at clinics in Kitsap and three surrounding counties.
Pet owners and cat colony caretakers who see the new kittens and the pregnant mama cats showing up in the colonies or on their properties, and WANT to do the responsible thing. encounter roadblocks at every turn until they throw up their hands in frustration and give up. Then that young pregnant mama cat can’t get her emergency spay, has a litter with three girls in it, and within 5 or 6 months, all three of those female kittens are pregnant and their mother is having another litter as well. Four times that number five months later. Four times that higher number again five months after that. Yes, it does happen that fast.
There is no place for these cats and kittens to go. And as of today there is no end in sight, only the prospect of an exponentially growing population of homeless, unsocialized and unwanted cats, which means suffering and death for many of these cats and concerns about the health and livability of our neighborhoods.
WE NEED A COOPERATIVE, ORGANIZED RESPONSE TO THIS CRISIS in Kitsap County and the West Sound area. We need an active, coordinated volunteer FORCE of dedicated individuals who can regularly:
• Offer temporary foster holding for cats and kittens turned away from KHS until a plan can be created for them
• Provide kitten-socializing foster homes for kittens of feral mothers or kittens who have had little interaction with human beings, until they are ready for spay/neuter and adoption
• Daily scour the TNR surgery scheduling sites for the various clinics (see list below) and apply for some of these openings for cats/kittens being held in foster by volunteers
• Daily scour social media groups for posts asking for help, to either delay people before they get themselves stuck with un-placeable cats, or to provide information and coordination to create a plan and help them safely hold the cats or to connect them with a volunteer foster who can do so until the plan can be successful
• Scour social media groups and Craigslist for kitten giveaways, so these kittens can be picked up and fostered and socialized until they can be surrendered in an appointment with local shelters, or adopted out to safe indoor homes.
• Communicate and coordinate with shelter administrations, vet services staff at area shelters, local veterinarians, Spay/Neuter clinics, Animal Control, and other “official” pet rescue organizations to remove barriers and frustration and streamline the process of helping these cats
• Fundraise for money to pay for TNR surgeries, traps, carriers, vaccines, emergency veterinary visits, foster holding crate setups, physical holding space, cat and kitten food, transportation, and outreach/educational materials
• Canvass neighborhoods before TNR trapping efforts or when there is a known “feral” colony in an area, to find the feeders and caretakers as well as locals willing to help in some way or allow trapping on their property
• Deliver loaner traps, carriers, blankets, bait, and other materials to people trying to trap on their own property (with a plan first, of course!)
• Transport cats to surgery, to recovery, to foster homes, to shelter surrender appointments and to permanent homes
• Transport Barn Cats to new barn homes, assist with acclimation setup, and pick up setup materials when the acclimation period has ended
• Reach out to all local veterinarian offices and shelter organizations to attempt coordination of MASH clinic Cat Spay Days
• Provide transportation out-of-county on a “Spay/Neuter Party Bus” to high-volume Cat Fix Days and MASH clinics and TNR clinics in neighboring counties
This is a huge endeavor. In the past few years, a small group of passionate cat rescue-involved individuals have made connections, collected materials, created active social media groups specific to local cat rescue efforts, and begun the process of creating the kind of coordination and communication and organization we need to truly make a dent in the cat overpopulation and suffering in our county – all while attempting to help those needing it right now also. But we have reached the limit of what can be done by a loosely-organized group of overwhelmed and underfunded passionate individuals. We need to take our efforts to the next level.
In the coming year, Pawsitive Change for Kitsap Cats will expand to:
• Become an official nonprofit organization
• Create a user-friendly interactive website
• Create a social media presence across multiple platforms
• Apply for grants and research other funding sources
• Develop official relationships with all of the local shelters, animal rescue organizations, and veterinarians
• Begin the process of developing a corps of dedicated volunteers throughout the county
• Develop educational materials for community outreach
• Begin grassroots outreach, promotion and fundraising within our local communities
This is a huge challenge, but we are determined to find newer, more effective ways to help larger numbers of the unowned cats, feral cat caretakers, and low-income cat owners in our local communities and reduce the suffering we see every day.
