"Breaking Mews. Animal Friends Hosts a Kitten Shower"
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The email press release caught my eye because of the cute subject line:
"Breaking Mews. Animal Friends Hosts a Kitten Shower"
Here's what journalists call the lede of the release:
The event will be held Sunday, August 5 from noon-3 p.m. at the Ohio Township shelter, officially known as the Caryl Gates Gluck Resource Center. The address is 562 Camp Horne Road.
Animal Friends will be decked out in pinks and blues and there will be shower games. Guests can make treat-filled baby bottles for the kittens to bat around. The homeless kitties even have a gift registry in the Animal Friends retail shop.
Yes, dear cat lovers, it's the height of what shelters call "kitten season" and it is a sad and stressful season for people who work or volunteer in shelters and rescue groups. The number of available homes is smaller than the number of homeless cats and kittens. Shelters do their best to find homes for as many as possible, and that includes cute events like the kitten shower.
"We're crawling with kittens, and they need you," says the Animal Friends release.
You don't have to wait until August to adopt a kitten. All of the shelters are flooded with kittens.
The kittens at the shower are the lucky ones, for they've been living in foster homes and Animal Friends is a no kill shelter.
There are thousands of kittens being born in wooded areas and on the streets of neighborhoods both urban and suburban. Those are the cats generally known as ferals. Most of those kittens "are born to die," said a cat lover who spoke on behalf of cats earlier this week at a Pittsburgh City Council hearing.
The hearing was to discuss the possibility of requiring cats to be licensed, just as dogs are. Many cat lovers are howling in protest. Council will discuss licensing again on Wednesday, during a meeting that starts at 10 a.m.
Not everyone loves cats, and elected officials get complaints from people who don't want cats -- whether they have owners or not -- defecating and urinating in their yards, gardens and porches. Others complain because cats kill birds, bunnies and other wildlife.
Here's some emails from Post-Gazette readers: The first lady wants to remain anonymous, probably fearing retribution from bunny-lovers:
Cats scare away (or destroy) rodents (ground moles, mice, etc.). They are the best natural rodent deterrent. Without the cat, a gardener needs to use chemicals to control the rodent population.
If you remove the cat from the equation, you increase your rodent population and increase the damage to your yard and garden.
Concerning the "bunny", here is an excerpt from a website on gardening:
Why are rabbits such a common garden pest in suburban and urban gardens? Because there are so many of them!
Rabbits reproduce rapidly. A female rabbit can breed at about the age of six months. Her litter will be born 31 days later, and she is likely to be pregnant again before she weans them at about six weeks of age.
Domestic rabbits also reproduce rapidly, and pet rabbits that have been "released" into the "wild" by irresponsible owners are a growing problem in many areas. Under truly wild conditions, the rabbit population is kept in check by a variety of predators. Without those predators, they continue to reproduce and invade our gardens.
Rabbits are mostly nocturnal. You may not see them in your garden, but you will recognize the damage they cause. They are random feeders, eating part of a plant, then moving on to the next. This maximizes the damage that they cause. In the winter, hungry rabbits will eat almost any plant material they can reach, including the bark of trees and shrubs. A girdled tree is a dead tree. "
Holly J. Wood, Greenfield
The problem with cat licensing ordinances is that they are aimed at people who don't provide care for their animals, or who own them only in the most marginal sense of the word. Cat licensing laws are an attempt to compel responsible behavior from people who have amply demonstrated that they are not, nor do they ever plan to be, responsible for their animal. How can it possibly work? Who do you think will comply with this law if it is passed? People who are already doing the right thing for their animals, or people who can't even be bothered to let their cat in on a sub-zero night?
I also provide food, water and shelter for several feral and loosely owned animals in my neighborhood. I have rescued many who were injured, relocated quite a few ferals to private cat sanctuaries, and generally tried to help them in their human-created plight.
Cat licensing laws would force me to assume ownership of these animals (by bringing them indoors) or abandon them altogether. How is that fair? Again, the people who create this problem by dumping or allowing their cats to roam are evading any accountability, while animals, and their caregivers, pay the price.
Trap, Neuter and Return programs can work if managed properly and pursued conscientiously. Friendly strays or loosely owned animals should be removed and placed for adoption. The fact that the animal is permitted to roam should be reason enough to legally proceed. Kittens of feral mothers should also be removed, and the remaining animals thinned out by relocating them to private cat sanctuaries.
A massive trapping and neutering campaign should ensue. Trapped animals should also be vaccinated, treated for parasites and other illnesses, eartipped, collared and tagged as a managed feral. A bell could also be added to the collar to alert wildlife to the cat's presence. Cats are then released back into the colony, where a caregiver provides food, water and shelter, checks for injuries and illness, and looks after the well-being of the animals.
Groups such as Alley Cat Allies have lent practical support to individuals and muncipalities wishing to implement a TNR program, and have developed successful strategies for dealing with issues unique to cat population management.
In short, we need a solution that does not penalize cats or cat owners. We need a humane approach that doesn't count euthanasia as the first and best option. It is my sincere hope that Pittsburgh will prove itself forward-thinking in this matter.
Ann Sutherland Harris of Squirrel Hill has some ideas and an opinion about the council member who introduced the cat licensing proposal:
It is, as others have pointed out, the feral cats that occasionally cause problems and they will be unaffected by this bill as no one will be sending $12 for each of them.
Only the trap, neuter release programs now being adopted across the coutry will eventually control their populations.
You might as well call for licensing raccoons or squirrels. And how about some really large fees for the occasional black bear!
First Published July 12, 2007 10:15 pm
