Carolina and kitten
Animal shelters are expecting thousands of cats this season. | File photo

Shelter director: 'We have cats that were kittens back in the pandemic that never got spayed, neutered'

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The Albuquerque Eastside Animal Shelter is preparing for the arrival of a massive amount of kittens this season, a byproduct of the pandemic.

“We can see, you know, up to 1,000 kittens in a season,” Susan Ellis, a CABQ Animal Welfare Department deputy director told KOB. “We have cats that were kittens back in the pandemic that never got spayed, or neutered because of that backlog. So now we have a lot more cats, they’re having a lot more kittens.”

Personal Protective Equipment shortages during the pandemic prompted the city to suspend the spray and neutering program.  The program is just starting to get back to normal, but hundred if not thousands of cats weren’t treated, per KOB.

“After the pandemic things started ramping up, and it is a national crisis with shelters,” Ellis said. “There is not a shelter in this country that doesn’t feel that tightness.”

It’s uncertain how many feral cats are roaming the city, but officials at Street Cat Hub are expecting an abundance of kittens. Street Cat Hub is a nonprofit organization that traps, neuters, or sprays and releases roughly 5,000 cats per year.

“We have dealt with colonies anywhere from just a mom and five kittens, all the way up to colonies in the South Valley that have upwards of 70 cats,” Jacinta Rupprecht, a Street Cat Hub volunteer coordinator told KOB. “We have a waiting list of I believe about 300 people right now.”

Employees said the biggest problem is every feral cat colony usually starts with an owned, free-roaming cat. “Somebody who doesn’t get their cat fixed, who then lets their cat out, the cat gets pregnant and the cat has kittens,” Rupprecht said.

Those kittens can end up on their doorstep, which can create overcrowding. “I mean, it is just- you have to make those hard decisions sometimes,” Ellis said. “You can’t have overcrowding, you can’t have kittens on top of cats and cats on top of kittens.”

The easiest way people can help out is by adopting a shelter cat that is already spayed and neutered. Animal Welfare is also searching looking for temporary foster homes. Street Cat Hub also ask people to call if they see feral cats so crews can grab them and fix them.

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