Juneau has a problem. A cat problem — indoor, outdoor, stray and feral. And the ones who aren’t spayed or neutered are multiplying at an alarming rate.
There are currently about 100 cats within Juneau Animal Rescue’s system, in foster care and the shelter itself. JAR hits capacity yearly, and it’s fundraising for a new building. But the number of unaltered cats in Juneau is growing faster and faster, and the shelter is struggling to keep up.
Veterinarian Alicia Harris said it’s hard to know how many cats there are in Juneau. But she says they multiply fast.
“Cats can become reproductively mature as early as four to six months, and their reproductive cycle is every 90 days,” she said. “And the average litter sizes are five to six kittens. So if you do the math … things can multiply very, very quickly and get out of control very fast.”
Two unaltered cats can turn into hundreds in just a handful of years. Harris has worked at JAR for close to a decade.
“It has absolutely evolved and changed since I started here, and gotten worse,” she said. “Especially with birth defects and things like that, because of inbreeding.”
She said the litters of kittens that people find and bring in increasingly have health problems.
Andy Nelson with JAR said the majority of kittens are coming from indoor cats whose population got out of control in someone’s home.
“It’s the ones that are indoors that, I think, are maybe more confined to smaller spaces where they’re breeding and repeatedly breeding inside,” he said.
He said he knows there are more in the community reproducing, but it’s impossible to know how many.
And spaying and neutering can be expensive. JAR has cheaper prices for low-income pet owners, but Nelson says people can call the rescue to see if donations can cover their cats’ surgery.
“I would just say that if people find themselves in the situation or try to avoid the situation, but money becomes an obstacle, to reach out,” he said. “We can always do our best to work with people.
Nelson said he believes a lot of these cats are the descendants of cats people took in during the pandemic, from litters sold or given away on Craigslist or Facebook.
Those cats usually aren’t fixed before they are given to their new home, and Juneau had a vet shortage during the pandemic. That may have prevented people from spaying and neutering cats before they started reproducing.
Nelson said anyone who is overwhelmed by cats in their home or neighborhood should reach out.
JAR Director Rick Driscoll said if anyone wants a new cat, they should consider adopting from the shelter instead of getting them off the internet.
“When you come to JAR and you adopt a cat, you’re getting a cat that’s been spayed or neutered, that’s got its vaccinations, that’s got a microchip, and there’s a fee associated with that,” he said. “But when people get cats for free, the cost comes later, and the cost is actually more than the adoption fee.”
Nelson said part of that cost is the animals’ health.
“A lot of these come in and they’ve been suffering,” he said. “And so they’re not in good shape.”
But there are community members who are stepping in to help, like Shonda Belknap, who fosters litters of kittens and even pulls litters out from under porches. In a room in her house dedicated to foster kittens, she held up a pale, very furry cat with crossed eyes.
“His name is Finnegan B Waddles,” she said. “He came to me very, very ill. We discovered through vet appointments that he has congenital hypothyroidism, which is very rare, but he is actually almost ready for fostering, I mean, for adoption.”
Finnegan is inbred. He’s only a few weeks old, but he will require daily medication for the rest of his life. Belknap said fostering brings her a lot of joy.
“You cannot be stressed in a room with foster kittens,” she said. “They won’t let you. They look at you like you’re the only thing that exists for them. So they need you to be present in that moment.”
She said when she sees posts on social media of Juneau families whose cats are unaltered and reproducing, she offers help.
“I have reached out several times to people I’ve seen online,” she said. “Like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s 12 cats,’ and I’m like, ‘Let’s get mom fixed. Let’s focus on mom.’”
Belknap takes in litters that are surrendered or found, takes care of them until they’re able to get spayed or neutered and vaccinated, and often pays for those procedures herself before finding them homes in the community.
She said she wants to see the population under control, so existing cats can get the love and care they need. And so those cats can love and care for the people who take them in.
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