Animal shelters overloaded in summer, but adoptions also go up

Summer at animal shelters across the country means more animals, more work, more bills and more worries.

And there are sometimes fewer staffers, volunteers and donations to handle it.

At the majority of animal shelters in the country, kittens make up problem Nos. 1 through 10 every summer, said Dr. Kate F. Hurley, director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California at Davis Center for Companion Animal Health.

"Kitten season" starts in the spring and ends in the fall in most parts of the country — a single unspayed female cat can have up to two litters of four or more kittens each.

The Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department gets hundreds of kittens during the summer, but it "feels like millions," said director Barbara Bruin.

"People are more likely to get a dog fixed than a cat, more likely to microchip a dog than a cat and more likely to claim a dog than a cat. Cats are the throwaways and we end up with way too many litters," she said.

Many kittens die because they are brought in so young they have to be bottle-fed and there aren't enough hands, she said. Disease in younger kittens also takes a toll. "We lose a lot of kittens this time of year," Bruin said.

Yolo County Animal Services in Woodland, near the university, normally takes in about 150 cats a month. From May to October, though, that number jumps to 300, Hurley said. The Dumb Friends League, which operates shelters in Colorado, had 350 to 400 cats in February but 751 on June 1, said spokesman Chris Gallegos.

Adding to the population explosion at shelters are puppy litters, runaway dogs (kids leave doors and gates open), dogs hit by cars and dogs rescued from hot cars.

In the past, shelters in college towns would have a rush of abandoned pets when school let out, but that's been changing in recent years, Hurley said. There are a few owners who will dump their pets so they can go on vacation, but with that kind of owner, the pets are probably better off, Bruin said.

Extra animals don't mean more room, more staff or more money, Hurley said. "It's a huge challenge and it comes at the same time a lot of us think about our vacations."

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