The Many tragic dilemmas facing our Homeless cats

Many people throughout the Klamath Basin are not aware that, every single month, at least 500 to 1,000 cats/kittens are either found abandoned on our streets or pressure is put on local shelters to take them in. A similar number, often unneutered feral or neighborhood cats, can be seen moving about or living in yards. These estimations are based on observations, conversations with many people, past histories of cat surrenders at shelters, and pressures we experience from the public at our facility. 

The month of October will repeat this same scenario, but it will be of new abandoned faces and unwanted births. This abandonment by owners and reproductive floods by stray cats also goes on endlessly in every outlying town. These sadly unwanted populations face starvation, sickness, repeat litters, fear, cruelty and death. Individuals who try to help these cats suffer, too, because each finds it emotionally painful to stand back and feel unsure of what to do to help. Most cannot afford the costs of even the most basic of veterinary care that’s needed. Then there’s emergency situations, which can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to address. Each is driven by the belief that it is morally unethical to ignore these solvable problems and not intervene with help. We share this view. 

FELINES’ CHANCES WERE WORSENED WHEN FRIENDS OF PETS (FOP) STOPPED ACCEPTING CATS 

Extreme public pressure forced FOP to stop accepting cats. FOP actively works to mediate overpopulations by funding spay/neuter (s/n) programs. Over the years, FOP has also taken in adoptable strays, but we are limited for space and were only able to accept a maximum of 85 cats in a year’s time. Yet, we have been subjected to many verbally aggressive actions by people who do not respect our limits. They were trying to force FOP to take more, often using social media in retaliatory vendettas. We STILL receive endless numbers of phone calls by people trying to push FOP to accept more and more multiple, feral or owner-cats (with no cost to them, of course). For many of these callers, their end goal is to just “get rid of them” and nothing more. To avoid these unreasonable, unnecessarily berating conflicts, FOP finally had to completely stop accepting cats -- even though we know this decision further reduces options for cats/kittens from those who are genuinely trying to help the homeless felines. 

To us, our critics do not comprehend that FOP is different from humane societies and for-profit businesses. We are intentionally a small volunteer organization funded solely by donations. We are a charity. We have limited resources and no willingness to work for government. There are some people that suggest, by their unreasonable behavior towards us, that they simply do not understand (or care about) the gripping, often heartbreaking scope of our work. We also think that many residents do not mentally grasp, or care to learn, the tragic inner workings of shelters... many of which have hidden from the public just what actually happens to the unfortunate animals inside their buildings. This adds to the confusion and misunderstanding we often find with the public. 

We boldly state that FOP’s sole interest is working to improve the quality of life for felines in our area. We are not concerned about displeasing those who have different agendas from our own. We keep suppressed from the public our ever-present pain in working with abandoned felines, often filled with grief, sickness and death. Because we are now forced to turn people away who ask for help with abandoned adoptable cats and kittens, our silent pain is only deepened.  

IMPACT OF SHELTER LICENSING RULES BY THE OREGON DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (ODA) 

Coincidentally, another reason FOP discontinued accepting felines is in response to the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s recent licensing policies. Those new policies require inspections of facilities (including photos) and mandates extensive record keeping. The ODA’s paper record-keeping rules to which we must abide by are beyond the level we can perform, and for that reason we no longer seek to be licensed. This decision limits us to a maximum of nine felines at a time in our building for adoption. Please note that FOP’s true goal is to have zero felines in our facility since we believe cats should not be in shelters to begin with. 

Although many ODA Rules are aligned with record keeping FOP has always maintained, other paperwork requirements have been added that go beyond our timely ability to fill in the blanks. For us, in our small facility, this paperwork is felt as an undue burden in an already stressful environment. Finally, the privilege to be licensed comes with a $375 fee. With limited funds, Friends of Pets has chosen to fund our Spay/Neuter Programs for the community and not wasting money on licensing costs with ODA. 

Despite FOP’s inability to meet high record-keeping requirements, we believe ODA rules are needed. We are well aware that illegitimate animal groups have popped up. Some shelters have been abusive to animals and take in more than can be cared for. Others are in the practice of adopting pets (mostly dogs) simply to make money and ignoring care of others. To us, the “shelter industry” as it has become, urged on by the large shelters, needs regulation. ODA had to take action. 

But we sense that the expanded ODA rules favor well-funded shelters that employ trained people. Those same rules can work against struggling communities such as ours. Wealthy shelters take in millions of dollars each year and often focus to re-home people’s pets, turning their back on sick, abandoned, behaviorally-problematic or hard-to-adopt animals. These animals are generally killed. 

For example, the Oregon Humane Society (OHS) is a massive organization. According to 2022 Federal 990 filing, OHS took in 27 million dollars, held 110 million in assets, employed about 300 people and utilized over 3,000 volunteers. This group processes thousands of pets each year. 

Only time will tell if ODA licensing will result in improved shelter operations... or if that licensing will become just one more cog in the rotating wheel of pet disposal. Regulation of animals locked in shelters, where many pets are similar in appearance with no way of accurately tracking, may not be realistic. It will never be known if more animals will be killed, rejected, or sent “underground” by organizations determined to avoid ODA licensing and paperwork. Whatever the outcome, ODA’s presence in shelters is a major event. 

LOOKING BACK... AND PREVIEWING THE LOCAL CRISIS LYING AHEAD 

It must be said that it has been a challenging 22-year experience in the Klamath Basin. When I arrived in 2000, many stray cats were seen crossing every street all day long, and many lay dead along road sides and highways. There were no spay/neuter programs and most veterinary clinics had kittens in cages looking to find homes. Over the years, FOP has funded thousands of spay and neuter procedures for cats to improve their lives. We are thankful to the many veterinary clinics that recognized the overpopulation problems and joined FOP’s efforts by taking action to enable this positive change to happen. 

It can be argued that shelters have waned in their mission to serve their own communities. Public support has also waned. Unless action is taken, I foresee locally that we may fall back to the bad times of 2000. 

This community is an obvious boiling pot filled with many frightful circumstances causing feline overpopulation and cruelty, including: (1) yearly increased numbers of pets abandoned to shelters or freed at-large; (2) likely exponential increased numbers yearly of pets not spayed or neutered; (3) not enough spay/neuter programs available; (4) increased costs of spay and neuter procedures and difficulty securing timely appointments to avoid pregnancy; (5) early spay/neuter (4 months for cats) is not promoted; (6) Animal Control enforces laws applying only to dogs; (7) complaints that Code Enforcement ignores unacceptable, sometimes dangerous feline living conditions on properties; and (8) unwillingness by local governments and residents to face these issues and come up with solutions other than killing the unwanted. 

FOP’s view is that unless thoughtful, progressive actions are taken by individuals who care, the overpopulation problems for cats will only worsen with time. Please join us to prevent this from happening. We need funding from residents and a willingness by veterinarians to recognize the crisis lying ahead and offer help to offset it in advance. Please financially support the Friends of Pets Spay/Neuter Programs for cats. They have no voices to speak up for themselves. Please help us help them.