A reader writes that she’s found herself in a predicament with a pending move and too many cats.
Actually, if you ask me, it’s the nearly two dozen cats and kittens that are in the bad place. But let’s see what you think.
The reader says her neighbor moved out awhile back, leaving behind 10 cats. The felines made their way over to her house – and now there are 23 cats. She now faces her own move – and doesn’t know what to do about all these cats.
Since the population more than doubled under her care, the phrase “spay and neuter clinic” comes to mind retroactively. But we’ll move past that.
Her biggest complaint seems to be against “the humane society.” She says she was told “even though (the cats) are not mine,” it would cost $5 per cat to drop them off at the shelter.
She doesn’t have that kind of money, she said.
“In this terrible economy $5 is a a lot to put out on other people’s animals,” she wrote. “Is it ’humane’ to tell me that I just leave them and maybe somebody will pay to bring them in?”
First of all, the Humane Society of Southern Oregon doesn’t take in lost or abandoned animals. They say it is against the law for them to do so. Secondly, the organization asks for a surrender fee closer to $45 per animal for owners turning in their pets.
Suspecting this reader might be confusing her shelters, I called Jackson County Animal Care and Control.
The agency will take the cats for free, says Director Colleen Macuk.
“You get them here, and we take them,” she said.
But getting 23 cats who are clearly not house pets into a shelter might take some doing. So perhaps the reader was confusing a $5 rental fee for live traps? Seems likely.
Meanwhile, the reader is very upset about the fate of the cats.
“There are many animal victims to this terrible economy recession. Many are just being left behind. I know the world is cruel, but I have to believe we aren’t that cruel that we don’t look out for our pets. Please, everybody, think of your animals if you need to move. If you can’t take them with you, then do the right thing and take them to the shelter.”
Amen.
I know the county shelter is willing to work with her on the rental fees for the traps, and that they will take the cats in at no charge.
I hope she does the right thing and continues to follow through for these cats before they are left behind – twice.
