Clair Batley, foster coordinator with a rescue kitten. 2020. Photo / File
Clair Batley, foster coordinator with a rescue kitten. 2020. Photo / File
A busy kitten season is putting huge pressure on local animal welfare organisations, with one manager saying its influx of cats this month is more than double than the same time last year.
The Rotorua SPCA and Rescue, Revive, Rehome Bay of Plenty have been experiencing an overload of felinerescues.
SPCA Rotorua centre manager, Vivien Moore said cats and kittens are coming in daily, with double the number of felines arriving in the month of November than the previous month.
"In November almost 100 were brought into the shelter, and in the first week of December we had 25 new cats and kittens brought into the shelter," Moore said.
"Our intake numbers so far for December are over twice what they were last year for felines, and with kitten season only just begun we are expecting an incredibly busy time over the next few months."
10 kittens all fostered by one volunteer for the SPCA. Photo / Supplied
She said the SPCA has had community interest in adopting, however, "many of our kittens are still too young to be separated from their litters and require care before being adopted".
"At SPCA, animals are not made available for adoption until they have been desexed, vaccinated, and treated for flea/worms, which is, at the earliest, around 8 weeks of age for kittens. Any kittens that come in need care until that time, which involves foster care, medical attention and procedures, and of course a lot of TLC.
"We are so grateful for the amazing fosters we have here at the Rotorua SPCA, but definitely require more to keep up with demand... Fosterers allow our kittens to become well socialised and ready for their forever homes.
"Anyone who has been thinking about adding a feline to the family for a while, and considered all the necessary aspects of their care and ensured they can meet their needs is encouraged to adopt."
Clair Batley, feline co-ordinator said the Rescue, Revive Rehome Bay of Plenty had 231 felines currently in foster homes.
Clair Batley playing with foster kittens. Photo / Supplied
The number being slightly higher than last year, Batley said, "it's shame because we desexed more than 1500 felines in the last season".
"We're getting a minimum of three to six requests a day of either kittens being found, dumped in a box, stray cats having kittens in people's garages."
Unfortunately, the demand for felines did not meet the need of fosters, Batley said.
When asked if she would encourage adoptions as Christmas presents Batley said "not at all".
"We see lots being dumped in January February, people have adopted and it has been a Christmas present and then they've realised that it is such a commitment."
"We do not adopt kittens as presents. A present is a material item and an animal is not - it's a 15 to 20-year commitment.
"Giving a kitten in a box to a child might be great on the day but what happens when that child gets sick of it?"
She said the rescue had been too lenient on this in the past and this led to felines being returned.
RRR foster kittens sleeping. Photo / Supplied
"It's not like you can pack up and go on holiday and not think about your animals and then we see ones being dumped."
Rescue, Revive, Rehome posted a plea for help on Facebook, encouraging the community to foster and donate kitten food.
Since the post, Batley said many people had raised their hands and at least 15 people had donated kitten food in the past four days.
Batley was grateful considering "we're just spending hundreds and hundreds every week at the moment to buy fosters kitten food".
Rescue, Revive, Rehome encouraged the community to buy donation vouchers as Christmas gifts.
Batley said people wanted to help but often couldn't foster or adopt so "if they're animal lovers I think it's pretty heartwarming to be able to donate on behalf of someone and give them that little card as present".
It's a way of "helping without actually having the animal".
Batley said the rescue wanted to break the cycle: "There are other options - please don't just dump kittens on the side of the road or in a box."
