What ????

It’s Spring time, and that means lots of kittens arriving at the shelter. Last year an estimated 20 million kittens were born just in the Spring season alone here in the US. The “Kitten Season”, as it’s called,  stands for  the period when births peak, and happens twice a  year: Spring and Fall, with  the more intense kitten season occurring in the Spring.(1)

Although 13 million of the 20 million kittens come from free roaming cats (1), many kittens come from regular household surrendered  to animal shelters by their owners, others come from hoarding situations and many kittens are just found abandoned by their mothers.

Programs as Trap-Neuter-Return helps minimize the number of free roaming kittens, but pet owners  also can do their part, by spaying  and neuteirng their cats, and also keeping them indoors.

P.S. Many animal hospitals and clinics provide low cost spay/neuter services for feral cats and for low income owners of cats and dogs.

All photos taken with iPhone 6. Photos by Ruth Szwarcbart .All rights reserved.

References :

1 – Galiotos,  K. : “Kitten Season: Huge Numbers Pose Problems for Shelters”, Pet Smart Charities Blog. petsmartcharities.org