Since the intake of cats has been going up — the increase primarily comes from strays — the center has been adopting them out at a higher rate. And a special deal the center is promoting is helping — adopt one cat, get the second for free. “We just want them to have homes,” Gentles said.
Average number of kittens a female cat can give birth to in a seven-year period, Gentles said. The average litter is about four to six kittens.
The next time you go into an animal shelter, listen hard. Even the loudest woof from the biggest dog might be drowned out by the growing chorus of little meows.
That’s because the population of cats seems to be getting larger every year.
The feline mating season begins with the first thaw of the year and ends with the first frost. But as global warming brings spring a little earlier and pushes winter later into the year, cats’ mating seasons are getting longer and an explosion in the population of newborn kittens is putting a massive strain on animal shelters.
In the first week of April, the Manhattan Animal Care Center in New York City was already nearly filled to capacity with mothers and their litters — and there’s still a good six months left in the mating season.
Richard Gentles, director of administrative services for Animal Care and Control of New York City, first noticed an uptick in feline intake five years ago.
“I thought I was seeing a lot more cats coming through here, and I thought it was a little strange,” Gentles said.
So he began to document the year-to-year increase in 2004. And what he found over the next five seasons was just what he thought.
In 2004, the center took in 25,609 cats, according to Gentles’ records. By the end of last year, it was taking in over 2,000 more.
“It’s very quickly becoming a critical situation,” Gentles said.
The center has partnered with the city to sponsor spay and neutering programs to try and keep the population of kittens under control. Gentles said it helps, but intake is rising so rapidly that they sometimes have to resort to other means.
“[At the height of the season], we euthanize maybe five or six [cats] a day. Sometimes it’s because they’re sick, but sometimes it’s because we don’t have the room [to house them]. It’s heartbreaking.”