The Burlington County Animal Shelter (BCAS) and Friends of BCAS are seeking community support to help foster and save cats as the shelter faces a surge of incoming kittens.
Burlington Township resident and volunteer with Friends of the Burlington County Animal Shelter (BCAS) Debbie Hampton said she knows for many people the word “foster” can be intimidating, but as the weather heats up so do the number of kittens in need of a foster family at BCAS. With “kitten season” underway, the number of kittens inundating the shelter has rapidly begun to increase.
Daisha Pierce, director of BCAS, said for months the shelter, located in Westampton, will not have any kittens come in, but once warm weather starts, the number surges. She said it’s not that animals are breeding more in the winter but that kittens’ chance of survival decrease during the cold months. She said the goal is to utilize a variety of resources to save as many animals as many kittens as possible during the influx, which usually runs until September or October.
Pierce said the shelter networks with other local shelters, such as the Camden County Animal Shelter in Blackwood, who may have space for kittens. She said networking has helped increase their save rates for cats compared to years past.
“Going into kitten season — the height of our season — we are working smarter this year,” Pierce said.
Strays are held for seven days before being euthanized, and Pierce said they use that window to socialize cats or kittens who may have initially appeared unadoptable when they came in. She they also utilize fosters to free up space at the shelter. She said Friends of BCAS are one of several organizations they work with when litters of kitten start coming into the shelter.
Theresa Kopaz, president of the Friends of the BCAS, said the county shelter has room for the around 250 cats, but at the height of the season last year, there were around 500. She said almost every foster with Friends of the BCAS had two cats.
Several of the friends have taken to local Facebook page trying to drum up fosters in Burlington County communities. Hampton said Burlington Township is one of the Burlington County communities with a large stray cat population coming into the shelter.
Hampton said the Friends are experiencing a particularly difficult foster shortage this year.
She said there is a common misconception that fostering is a long-term commitment, but in reality it can be as short as two or three weeks. Fosters only need to host a kitten long enough for it to become the adoptable weight of two pounds.
“We’re trying to educate people about what fostering is and how it can save [cats],” Hampton said.
Kopaz said fostering an animal not only saves the lives of the kittens taken in but saves the lives of the kittens who take their place.
“By asking you to take home a litter of kittens it gets them out of the shelter away from disease,” Kopaz said. “It’s life preserving”
She said many people find the fostering process unexpectedly rewarding. She said she herself had never planned on fostering, but when she did it for the first time years ago, she found taking year of the kittens was less work and more reward than she had anticipated.
Taking care of the kittens doesn’t require much from fosters, Kopaz said. A few litter changes a day, feedings and some good socialization are really all it takes, she said.
For anyone new to fostering, she said the Friends of BCAS have a closed Facebook group where new fosters can ask questions about anything without fear of embarrassment. The Friends also fundraise to support any medical costs that may arise.
Before Friends partnered with BCAS, only one out of every four cats left the shelter alive, Kopaz said. Now,thanks, in part, to the Friends’ fostering efforts, around 60 percent of cats leave the shelter alive.
“We are seeking a kinder, gentler approach to community cat,” Kopaz said.
Residents of Burlington County interested in fostering can do so directly through the shelter or can contact the Friends of the BCAS. For more information, visit the Burlington County Animal Shelter’s website at http://www.co.burlington.nj.us/168/Animal-Shelter or the Friends of the BCAS’ website at http://www.friendsofbcas.org/
