Free cat adoption starts today, animal shelter asking for help
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — If you have wanted to take home a new cat or kitten recently, this weekend is a chance to do that. Starting at 10 a.m. Thursday, the Indianapolis Animal Care Services will hold a free cat and kitten adoption event.
This is because they have seen an influx in the animals recently and have run out of space.
“Right now we are in a position where we haven’t had to euthanize an animal for space in 2017, but we urgently need to get some of those cats out of here or that situation’s gonna change,” said Katie Trennepohl with Indianapolis Animal Care Services.
The shelter said they have taken in almost 700 cats since June 1.
Every spring and summer shelters see an increase in these animals because of warmer weather and the breeding season.
“Our goal is to get all of these animals out alive. If we have to give them away to do that we will do that. There’s just so many animals we can care for in the building and the building’s only so large and we only have so many staff members,” Trennepohl added.
The shelter said most of the animals they get in are strays and often have not been spayed or neutered. That creates more unwanted animals that get taken into shelters.
Veterinarian Dandee Gibson said pet owners need to get their own pets fixed early on.
“It’s pretty much the most important thing we can do to prevent senseless euthansia in our community, so I feel like early spay and neuter is important. The earlier you do it the faster they recover,” Gibson said.
“Personal pets should always be spayed or neutured especially if they’re going to be outside for any period of time or if there are other unaltered animals in the home,” said Trennepohl.
Spay and neutering can eliminate testicular cancer and prostate problems in males along with mammary and ovarian cancer in females.
Gibson said procedure prices can range from $30 to $50. It is usually a day procedure. Pets often go home the same day, and recovery is usually fairly simple.
“If we continue to increase doing a good job at early spay and neuter, we will see less and less animals come into the shelter and I think that’s our goal,” said Gibson.
Many people have a neighborhood cat that they feed. It can be very helpful to get that animal spayed or neutered. That is through a process called TNR which stands for trapped, neutered, and returned. There are a couple places locally that will take care of those animals at little to no cost.
FACE on Massachusetts Avenue is one location where stray animals can be taken to get the spay and neuter procedure done.