Warwick Valley Humane Society faces crisis with too many cats

WARWICK — The cat population, 185 at last count, who are housed in the Warwick Valley Humane Society’s animal shelter, is at crisis level.
“We need the community’s support,” pleads Suzyn Barron, president of the Society. “We are drowning in cats and kittens and we cannot afford their upkeep with litter and cat food.”
It’s been a bad year for the society when it comes to taking in unwanted cats.
Last March, the Animal Control Officers (ACOs) at the Shelter rescued an abandoned colony of outdoor unspayed and un-neutered cats from a house in Chester whose occupants had simply moved away leaving the animals without provisions.
Then in June, a dozen cats were removed from a storage unit in Greenwood Lake. Only discovered because someone heard a “meow,” they were rescued from a filthy, dark, dank unit, where they had been living for weeks on end without food or water. Several required immediate medical attention.
Just this August, the ACOs, working for two hours in intense heat, removed 11 cats and one dog from a condemned mobile home in Harriman.
“No other agency would come to the aid of these animals,” said Barron.

Numerous surrenders

Her staff recently rescued five cats, living in filth, from a home in Warwick.
But there are also numerous surrenders of well cared for animals.
“A couple of weeks ago,” said Barron, “a young man came to the shelter in tears because his cat died, leaving four newborn kittens, which his family did not want. And when a Warwick Valley Telephone worker was repairing lines inside a home in Florida, he opened a wall and found a little kitten inside. He brought it here.”
The Humane Society does not receive funding to care for cats and must rely on donations and sponsors.
It is in desperate need of natural wood stove pellets, feline pine or equine pine pellets, all of which are used for litter, bleach and ground canned cat food.

Plea for help

“We cannot meet our expenses in caring for all these cats,” said Barron. “Many are on antibiotics and supplements. We are stretched and stressed to the max and are begging for help.”
The animal shelter could also use safe barn-like living conditions for those cats who are used to the outdoors and who are unhappy and stressed living in cages.

Finding good homes is the best solution and the advantages of adopting a pet from the Humane Society, including neutering and having required immunizations, are many.
Bring along a copy of this story for a 50 percent discount on the usual adoption fee.
For additional information or to make a donation call 986-2473.

- Roger Gavan