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A beautiful litter of orange and white kittens was left at the door of a shelter in a carrier, with a bag of food, on October 20. They are the third orange and white litter dropped off anonymously this year, and bring the total of related kittens left there to 40.
No one seems to know who is leaving the kittens, but the shelter says they would like the person to call them and wants the Mama cat to be spayed.
The Brown County Humane Society in New Ulm, MN appreciates that whoever is leaving litter after litter of related kittens with them places them in carriers and supplies bags of food, but the cost to the nonprofit is taking up a significant portion of their budget.
They are making a public appeal to the person leaving the kittens, with an offer to spay and neuter the parent cats for free to stem the seemingly endless tide of surplus kittens.
The public is invited to adopt the kittens.
The Brown County Humane Society wrote about the most recent incident at Facebook on October 20, saying:
“We are happy the kittens are safe. We just wish this person(s) would spay/neuter their pets, since it is obvious that these kittens are unwanted. We spend on average $160 per kitten that arrives at our shelter for general medical care (Spay/Neuter, Vaccinate, Fecal Test, Revolution, etc.). We are Greatly Thankful these costs are discounted to us by local veterinarians.
“In the past 3 years, we have had 40 White & Orange kittens dropped off in a similar manner. The costs to our shelter for these 40 kittens is $6,400. On top of this, many kittens arrive sick (upper respiratory infections, ear mites, etc.) Thus further medical costs are added on top of the basic medical care.
“We are SO THANKFULL for our BCHS Volunteers & Supporters who help us care for unwanted pets.
“It would be nice if people would spay & neuter their pets (especially cats in Brown County & everywhere else) to help decrease the amount of unwanted pets. Even with offering our Spayed/Neutered Cats & Kittens for an unbelievably low Adoption Fee of $25, we are still struggling to find them homes.”
The shelter struggles to keep the number of cats on site within the number they are legally allowed to have there, and must appeal to volunteers to handle the overflow.
They say that, while it is nice for the person to leave a new carrier and a bag of food with each litter, those niceties do little to offset the expense to the Humane Society and the logistics of caring for and rehoming yet more surplus kittens.
Area residents have access to a mobile spay and neuter clinic and could help manage the overabundance of companion animals if they would take advantage of the opportunity to spay and neuter their pets.
Not surprisingly, a ~”Millions Of Cats”….Looking For Homes (New Ulm, MN) listing at the local Craigslist site leads to a post by the Brown County humane Society for their adoptable cats. We found the post while doing a quick check of Craigslist to see if the person dumping the kittens could be easily traced through that site.
A video news report on the story from the local CBS affiliate follows below.
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Poor mama kitty must be always pregnant or nursing kittens. She must wonder where her babies are. Poor thing.