Abandoned Kittens Need Help

[ericsmom1000]

I just received an e-newsletter from the Pasadena Humane Society here in Southern California, asking for donations to help care for the abandoned kittens coming through their doors. The PHS is partnering with area shelters to give these kittens a chance to be adopted rather than being killed at city and county shelters.

I look at these faces, and ask myself how anyone could kill these babies, but with idiotic and irresponsible owners refusing to spay and neuter, this is the tragic result.

A no-kill shelter in Los Angeles run by Best Friends Animal Society has a kitten nursery, as does The San Diego Humane Society, but we need more. And Best Friends refuses to rescue from county shelters, as well as SPCAs and humane societies, so that makes me mad.

The Pasadena Humane Society needs money to help the kittens. Visit www.phs.org for more info.

 

[ericsmom1000]

The Pasadena Humane Society's web page is at www.pasadenahumane.org. My mistake in my previous post.

 

[catsknowme]

Have you posted on FaceBook? It breaks my heart that with all the spay/neuter options in SoCal, there are still so many litters being born

 

[ericsmom1000]

The Pasadena Humane Society announced on August 25 that a new "Kitten-Garten" -- a nursery for kittens up to eight weeks old -- has opened, thanks to a generous grant. It is partnering with the ASPCA and the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control to take kittens out of high-kill shelters, and give them second chances at life. The nearest County shelter is in Baldwin Park -- not far from me. It is the busiest county shelter, and a death house for most animals, especially kittens as young as the ones the PHS is taking in. The first arrivals from Baldwin Park are at the PHS. This program will help save 1,000 kittens per year.

The ASPCA will help transport kittens, once they are old enough, to rescues and shelters across the country where the kitten supply is short, and have better chances for adoption.

For more information about the Kitten-Garten, go to www.pasadenahumane.org, and scroll down to "In the News."

 

[catsknowme]

The kitten-garden is awesome! We need to get a brigade of cat rescuers out to Baldwin Park to do TNR. If we could get as many people to do a peaceful march promoting responsible pet ownership and dutiful citizenship (caring for community animals including ferals and wildlife) as we have people protesting against something, there would be an amazing turn- around in the plight of animals.
To the good animal lovers who have supported the Kitten-Garden and other efforts benefitting cats:

 

[ericsmom1000]

I e-mailed PHS President Julie Bank today, asking what happens to kittens less than three weeks old -- are they left at the county shelter to die?

I asked because the PHS press release said the Kitten-Garten is for those four to eight weeks old, whereas the story in our local paper did not.

 

[ericsmom1000]

Less than four weeks old

 

[catsknowme]

So kittens less than 4 weeks old are still destroyed?

 

[ericsmom1000]

So kittens less than 4 weeks old are still destroyed?

Julie e-mailed me, and said that the first phase of the Kitten-Garten is to take those who are four to eight weeks old from the Los Angeles County Shelter in Baldwin Park. The second is to raise money and get more volunteers so they can expand the nursery on their property. So what they are doing now is taking babies of all ages, with or without moms, to be fostered or put in the nursery. The PR person for the Pasadena Humane Society received a copy of my e-mail, so perhaps some clarification is needed about those under four weeks old.

 

[catsknowme]

Kittens
I sure hope things have changed. According to this online flyer, 6 L.A. shelters need kitten fosters.....OVER 2,600 KITTENS 8 weeks and under were destroyed in 2016

 

[ericsmom1000]

Kittens
I sure hope things have changed. According to this online flyer, 6 L.A. shelters need kitten fosters.....OVER 2,600 KITTENS 8 weeks and under were destroyed in 2016

Those numbers are sickening. And are those Los Angeles city shelters numbers, or Los Angeles County shelters? While far more felines are being saved, there are more dog rescues in Southern CA than cats. Spaying and neutering are the only solutions to this tragedy.

 

[catsknowme]

That was CITY shelters....oh, I feel sick realizing that there are even more in the county....several years ago, I made an unplanned overnight stay off the I-5 at a cheap hotel near a Dennys and there were starving, sick cats and kittens. I left them with the food from the rescue kit in my luggage as well as my prayers. I asked some Dennys diners to notify local rescue groups - I pray that they did.
In 2006, there were 23 cats in our Vons lot. At the time I was married to an attorney, so I did my own TNVR and the colony is now hovering around 5-8 kitties, not counting the 2 litters of hidden kittens. The kittens are born sick and few survive. But TNR works best, even if it means spaying pregnant kitties.

 

[ericsmom1000]

That was CITY shelters....oh, I feel sick realizing that there are even more in the county....several years ago, I made an unplanned overnight stay off the I-5 at a cheap hotel near a Dennys and there were starving, sick cats and kittens. I left them with the food from the rescue kit in my luggage as well as my prayers. I asked some Dennys diners to notify local rescue groups - I pray that they did.
In 2006, there were 23 cats in our Vons lot. At the time I was married to an attorney, so I did my own TNVR and the colony is now hovering around 5-8 kitties, not counting the 2 litters of hidden kittens. The kittens are born sick and few survive. But TNR works best, even if it means spaying pregnant kitties.

The good thing about the Los Angeles City shelters is that Best Friends Animal Society started a "NKLA" (No Kill L.A.) campaign either last year or the year before, wanting to make the city shelters no-kill shelters. Apparently more than 100 rescues came on board to assist. Best Friends took over a shelter in an area of Los Angeles called the San Fernando Valley ("the Valley" to the locals), and opened its own no-kill facility. Another facility has also opened in West Los Angeles. The Valley shelter was supposed to be opened by the city, but it never did, so Best Friends was given the shelter to work out of. Prior to having the shelter, it would work with teams of people to pick up stray animals, especially in the poorer neighborhoods, and then taken to Best Friends' main sanctuary (1,200 acres) in Southern Utah. I'm sure picking up the stray animals continues.

Unfortunately, Best Friends' campaign does not extend to the five or six county shelters, nor does it work with local SPCAs or humane societies. There are also small cities that have their own shelters. So for Best Friends to tout that L.A. will become a no-kill city is misleading, because the city of Los Angeles is not the entire county of Los Angeles. There are 10 million people in Los Angeles County. Add another 10 million to San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and Ventura Counties, all of which are part of the Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan area, and THEIR shelters, and you see how numerous the kill shelters are. Numerous rescues go to these shelters, but nonetheless, assistance by Best Friends would make an enormous difference in the number of animals that are euthanized.

There is an organization called "Wings of Rescue," based at Van Nuys airport in the San Fernando Valley, and pilots who donate their time and planes regularly fly hundreds of dogs and cats on death row, primarily to the Pacific Northwest, where there is a shortage of adoptable animals. I think WOR works with Best Friends, but I am not sure. Wings of Rescue has a website, and does accept monetary donations to offset the costs of fuel and other expenses incurred in transporting these animals.

Your story about the sick and starving cats and kittens breaks my heart, because all of this can be prevented by spaying and neutering. It's that simple. No animals should be suffering because an irresponsible former owner, who dumped his or cat, did not spay or neuter his or her pet.

The county shelters used to have a voucher program that failed miserably. It put the responsibility of getting a dog or cat fixed in the new owners' hands, and $40 would be subtracted from the vet's fee. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn't follow through, and came to the same shelters with unwanted litters of puppies and kittens, with excuses as to why they never got their pets fixed. Finally, after the rescue community raised hell, the policy changed, and the county shelters contract with a local vet to have the animals fixed and microchipped BEFORE he or she is given to his or her new family. I believe the city shelters follow this same protocol -- I would think so. But they may have their own clinics at the shelters, so the spaying and neutering can be done there. The city and county shelters are run differently in Los Angeles.

 

[catsknowme]

I had read horror stories about the "death camp" aka Moreno Valley animal shelter - that they put down dogs and cats in 3 days. I am forever haunted by the death of a beautiful, very pregnant, white cat on Beach Boulevard in Buena Park. I had seen her the night of my arrival and as I carried a large cat carrier in my car, was hoping to lure her on my last day of vacation and adopt her and get her fixed and the kittens socialized and homed. Alas, her fate was otherwise - she was struck by a car while I was at the Medieval Times show. My only comfort was that her kittens died unborn, not mewing in vain for their dead mother. When I feel tired or discouraged or too ill, I remind myself of that kitty and countless others, in whose honor I muster on.
I have to admit that I am disappointed at the lack of responses to this thread.

 

[ericsmom1000]

I had read horror stories about the "death camp" aka Moreno Valley animal shelter - that they put down dogs and cats in 3 days. I am forever haunted by the death of a beautiful, very pregnant, white cat on Beach Boulevard in Buena Park. I had seen her the night of my arrival and as I carried a large cat carrier in my car, was hoping to lure her on my last day of vacation and adopt her and get her fixed and the kittens socialized and homed. Alas, her fate was otherwise - she was struck by a car while I was at the Medieval Times show. My only comfort was that her kittens died unborn, not mewing in vain for their dead mother. When I feel tired or discouraged or too ill, I remind myself of that kitty and countless others, in whose honor I muster on.
I have to admit that I am disappointed at the lack of responses to this thread.

California law requires that animals get a minimum of four days at a shelter before they are euthanized, but not all shelters obey it. The Inland Humane Society and SPCA in Pomona had the same reputation as Moreno Valley, and reports by former volunteers and employees stated that the top people were getting huge salaries at the expense of the animals. Our local paper started investigating, and the organization was forced to clean up its act.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the San Gabriel Humane Society. It started as a dreary dump where the euthanasia rate was nearly 100% because no one knew about the animals there, and the employees could have cared less. The volunteers had had enough, and took matters into their own hands. Employees and the Board of Directors were fired, the media was contacted to let the public know about this shelter, and asked for help in transforming the place into one that was appealing to people and animals. That was twenty years ago. Now it is a no-kill facility. A blind cat featured in the weekly "Pets of the Week" section of the shelter was there a year before she was adopted by a woman who had a blind cat.

As far as the lack of response is concerned, I think many people are on tight budgets caring for their own cats, and have none to donate. Or perhaps some don't care. They read the thread, and go on to something else. They assume that because the PHS received a $325,000 grant to open the nursery, no more is needed. It is a lot of money, but it can go quickly when caring for so many kittens.

Take comfort in knowing the white cat and her babies left this world quickly, and are safe now. She inspires you to soldier on to help other cats, so her life was not in vain.

 

[ericsmom1000]

"Pets of the Week" section of our local paper

 

[JamesCalifornia]

ericsmom1000
Take comfort in knowing the white cat and her babies left this world quickly, and are safe now. She inspires you to soldier on to help other cats, so her life was not in vain.

~ It's hard to rehome a flock of tame cats that we feed and care for. Eventually the city come along and that's it. All I know that can give a bit of thought is euthanasia is more humane today. I hope so...

 

[catsknowme]

ericsmom1000
Take comfort in knowing the white cat and her babies left this world quickly, and are safe now. She inspires you to soldier on to help other cats, so her life was not in vain.

~ It's hard to rehome a flock of tame cats that we feed and care for. Eventually the city come along and that's it. All I know that can give a bit of thought is euthanasia is more humane today. I hope so...

I visited the Inyo shelter and was happily impressed with their euthanasia procedures - it is virtually the same as at the vet. Thank God that the days of the gas chambers are long gone!

 

[JamesCalifornia]

Thank God that the days of the gas chambers are long gone!

~ Yes many now do injection. I understand the gas they use is carbon monoxide - basically what was once know as the "suicide cure" . First animals are allowed to breathe an anesthetic gas and they sleep - then the other. It's a peaceful end. But for us always sad ...

 

[catsknowme]

I just looked up the www.pasadenahumane.org page. Wow! So much expansion into what they do! I am hoping that their efforts will encourage other cat rescuers worldwide. Kitten season is nearing...