Don’t take naps, there is a better way to help Tampa Bays stray and feral kittens

Tampa Bay’s cats and kittens need homes.

The St. Francis Society Animal Rescue cares for over 600 kittens and cats, the Humane Society of Tampa Bay has over 300, and the Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center has 232 percent occupancy. They all depend on resources, especially veterinarians. The County Resource Center has only filled two of its five positions, and the Humane Society has a veterinarian.

Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center will only accept animals in cases involving “injury, neglect, or animal bites”.

“Stop buying, spaying, and neutering your own cats. If you find there is a feral cat problem in your neighborhood, come in and get trapping help, ”said Maria Matlack, Marketing Director for the Humane Society.

It’s kitten breeding season, which lasts until late August, and cats and kittens run amok. Some are feral (not social with humans) and others are stray (socialized with humans), but they need to be vaccinated and neutered to keep the cat population healthy.

The endgame of overpopulation is neutering and neutering, and the Humane Society serves as an operations center every Monday to sterilize up to 100 cats. St. Francis and the County Resource Center bring cats and kittens to the Humane Society weekly. The cats are neutered or neutered, vaccinated and either given up for adoption or returned to where they were found when they are feral.

How to help

The process is called trap, neuter, vaccination, return. The Humane Society will set a trap and St. Francis can send one of their volunteers out if people spot strays.

But it’s important to educate yourself and avoid becoming what the Humane Society calls “kit-napper”.

“What (people) think is orphaned kittens, 95 percent of the time the mommy kitten is either hunting or scared away and mommy will return to the kittens,” said Scott Trebatoski, director of Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center.

A mother cat is attending to her dependent kittens at the Humane Society in Tampa on Monday, July 5, 2021. [ ARIELLE BADER | Times ]

What to do when you find a litter of kittens

According to national and local organizations, the right step is to wait and watch the kittens for a few hours unless there is imminent danger. The Alley Cat Allies, a national organization for the welfare of cats, recommends sprinkling the kittens with flour to see if the mother leaves paw prints in case she returns while you are not watching. When she comes back, leave the cat and its kittens alone. It’s okay to skip food or water, build an outdoor shelter, and keep an eye out for predators. If the mother doesn’t return after a few hours and the kittens start to look malnourished, intervene by grooming the cats, referring them to a friend, or looking for a home.

“The best place for kittens is with their mother,” said Becky Robinson, president of the Alley Cat Allies. Shelters can be a highly stressful environment and can affect the mother’s health and ability to care for her kittens.

As soon as kittens are four to five weeks old, begin socializing them so that they are suitable for adoption after eight weeks of sterilization.

The difficulty right now is finding a home, even a temporary one, that kittens can go to to learn to be with people, says Kathy Walvoord, president of the St. Francis Society.

Following this process is not always possible.

Stray cats await their surgery and vaccination at the Humane Society in Tampa on Monday, July 5, 2021. [ ARIELLE BADER | Times ]

Walvoord said it would be better to save a lonely kitten found somewhere the mother may not return. Kittens can easily die of hypothermia, so in scenarios like finding a newborn behind a Publix in the corner of a closed shipping crate, it is better to rescue the kitten and nurse it back to health.

The Alley Cat Allies instructs never to take the kittens to a shelter without investigating to see if animals are euthanized. Robinson says the only way to use the shelter is if it has a “wait till 8” program run by the Hillsborough County Animal Resource Center, or some kind of kitten nursery. The Wait Until 8 program gives people all the tools they need free of charge if they decide to care for the kitten until it is eight weeks old and ready for adoption.

There are a lot of cat lovers out there. Call the numbers below if you want to make or adopt a new friend.

Cat rescue

Francis Society: 813-744-5660

Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center: 813-744-5660

Human Society Tampa Bay: 813-876-7138

Alley Cat Allies: 240-482-1980

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