Post by Pets on Jul 4, 2004 8:44:44 GMT -8
Stray felines are rampant in area
www.sgvtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,205~12220~2251919,00.html
By Karen Rubin
The room at the Pomona-based Inland Valley Humane Society is where workers inject animals with lethal drug doses.
The barrel outside the room fills with cats killed because they were diseased, injured or unwanted.
Because of rampant overpopulation, local animal shelters are putting down an increasing number of cats, shelter officials say.
The Pomona shelter euthanized 879 cats in May, the latest month available. The number is the highest of any month this year, bringing the total to 2,463.
"If we don't stop and break this circle, we are going to keep going and going and that is not acceptable,' said William Harford, director of the Pomona shelter. "It is almost one of those forbidden discussions of what is going on with cats in the world of animal care and control.'
At the Baldwin Park animal shelter, 5,283 cats were put down last year; 6,525 have already been killed this year, records show. The shelter did not give month-to-month statistics.
And scores of cats sit in cages awaiting adoption.
The problem: Cat owners are not spaying or neutering their pets and are letting them roam, where they breed and are subject to disease and injury, Harford said.
Also, most cities fail to require cats to wear identification tags and don't require vaccinations.
"There are colonies of sick cats in need of medical attention,' Harford said. "We can't save them all. We need people to look in their own back yards to clean up the problem.'
Harford has introduced a low- cost adoption and spay-and-neuter program in La Verne, the first of its kind at the Pomona shelter.
La Verne residents who adopt a cat from the shelter will be charged $50 for their pet instead of the normal $80 fee, Harford said. Residents on Medi-Cal and Medicaid can neuter their pets for $5 and spay them for $10, down from $25 and $50.
The program was started in La Verne, Harford said, because the city is the only town within the shelter's jurisdiction that mandates all pet cats be licensed. This year, the shelter licensed more than 3,000 cats in La Verne.
The program earned $15,250, which will pay local veterinarians for spaying and neutering surgeries.
"We are not going to turn our backs on the cats in this community,' Harford said. "We have got to start somewhere.'
Shelters are now adopting out more dogs than cats. When a dog is lost, frantic owners claim their pets, but the majority of cat owners don't bother, Harford said.
The problem worsens during mating season, when litters average six kittens, most of whom are female and who breed at six months. Thus, the cycle repeats.
Virginia Schaum of West Covina volunteers for the rescue program Cats In Need. The group is one of a handful attempting to save cats.
"This is about the worst area for the feral cat population,' Schaum said. "Cats have become disposable because there are so many of them.'
-- Karen Rubin can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2109, or by e-mail at karen.rubin@sgvn.com .
www.sgvtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,205~12220~2251919,00.html
By Karen Rubin
The room at the Pomona-based Inland Valley Humane Society is where workers inject animals with lethal drug doses.
The barrel outside the room fills with cats killed because they were diseased, injured or unwanted.
Because of rampant overpopulation, local animal shelters are putting down an increasing number of cats, shelter officials say.
The Pomona shelter euthanized 879 cats in May, the latest month available. The number is the highest of any month this year, bringing the total to 2,463.
"If we don't stop and break this circle, we are going to keep going and going and that is not acceptable,' said William Harford, director of the Pomona shelter. "It is almost one of those forbidden discussions of what is going on with cats in the world of animal care and control.'
At the Baldwin Park animal shelter, 5,283 cats were put down last year; 6,525 have already been killed this year, records show. The shelter did not give month-to-month statistics.
And scores of cats sit in cages awaiting adoption.
The problem: Cat owners are not spaying or neutering their pets and are letting them roam, where they breed and are subject to disease and injury, Harford said.
Also, most cities fail to require cats to wear identification tags and don't require vaccinations.
"There are colonies of sick cats in need of medical attention,' Harford said. "We can't save them all. We need people to look in their own back yards to clean up the problem.'
Harford has introduced a low- cost adoption and spay-and-neuter program in La Verne, the first of its kind at the Pomona shelter.
La Verne residents who adopt a cat from the shelter will be charged $50 for their pet instead of the normal $80 fee, Harford said. Residents on Medi-Cal and Medicaid can neuter their pets for $5 and spay them for $10, down from $25 and $50.
The program was started in La Verne, Harford said, because the city is the only town within the shelter's jurisdiction that mandates all pet cats be licensed. This year, the shelter licensed more than 3,000 cats in La Verne.
The program earned $15,250, which will pay local veterinarians for spaying and neutering surgeries.
"We are not going to turn our backs on the cats in this community,' Harford said. "We have got to start somewhere.'
Shelters are now adopting out more dogs than cats. When a dog is lost, frantic owners claim their pets, but the majority of cat owners don't bother, Harford said.
The problem worsens during mating season, when litters average six kittens, most of whom are female and who breed at six months. Thus, the cycle repeats.
Virginia Schaum of West Covina volunteers for the rescue program Cats In Need. The group is one of a handful attempting to save cats.
"This is about the worst area for the feral cat population,' Schaum said. "Cats have become disposable because there are so many of them.'
-- Karen Rubin can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2109, or by e-mail at karen.rubin@sgvn.com .