A Catastrophic Problem of Wild Animals
This article was in our local paper on Saturday. I cut it out and made copies to hand out to some people I know with animals that they have yet to have neutered and/or spayed.... It really hit home with me and brought me to tears....
By Dick Case
We've got a big cat problem in Onondaga County. It's epidemic, by some measures.
Thousands of wild and stray cats spread across the landscape in the city and county. "Maybe tens of thousands," according to one expert at the Central New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
Betsie Puffer, one of the society's two cruelty investigators, has to clean up the messes left by irresponsible pet owners. Last week, she had the worst case of her 19-year career.
A squad of civil servants from police to fire to social workers, joined Betsie and her partner Paul Morgan, at 1212 N. State St. Inside, they found 58 cats in various stages of neglect and a home filled with clues about lousy housekeeping: The basement was the litter box.
The visitors declared the place unfit for habitation and sent the 92 year old owner and her 50 year old grandson packing.
The poor critters they'd brought inside-apparently out of kindness- had to be put to sleep. All 58 of them.
"That was one of the most unpleasant tasks I've ever had," Betsie says in her office on East Molloy Road a few days later. "If only...."
If only we'd care for the animals we agree to love and look after for a lifetime.
If only we'd get our pets spayed and neutered.
If only we knew enough to feed them right, keep up on their shots, medicate them when they need it, treat them with respect.
If only we'd find a home for a cat or dog we can't keep instead of leaving them in the house or apartment when we move to North Carolina.
Or dump them in a stranger's yard and drive away.
If only we didn't think the SPCA is responsible for every creature we don't want.
If only we understood the limitations and missions of our animal shelters. How pressed they are for space and money. How much they need our help - financial and spiritual.
"Some people just don't get it," Betsie says. "We try to education and educate: Spay and neuter, Spay and neuter, spay and neuter..."
Like the guy who comes into the shelter wanting to give up his fertile female dog because she keeps having puppies.
Like the woman who screamed at Betsie on her answering machine last week, calling her a killer of cats.
The caller missed seeing the tears streaming down the cheeks of this woman who shows up when we aren't kind to our animals.
Or citizens like the folks on North State Street, who "collect" or "hoard" animals. The SPCA has them down chapter and verse:
"A person who amasses more animals than he/she can properly care for. Such individuals generally fail to reognize - or refuse to acknowledge- when animals in their custody become victims of gross neglect."
These neighbors think they're being kind. But it they don't get the cats they feed spayed or neutered, the buck is passed to the shelters, government agencies and the rest of us.
Remember this: If a dog or cat has four offspring every year, two of them female....and each female also has four offspring, two of them female,...by the seventh year the original mother will have 4,372 descendants.
No wonder the SPCA gets calls form neighbors yelling about cats turning their neighborhoods into litter boxes because "the old lady down the street feeds them."
Our SPCA and other agencies don't kill the healthy animals they take in, despite the calls from people who want them to do just that " so you can make room for my cat."
Last year, staff and volunteers took in 3,600 animals, found homes for 1,326 , reunited 323 with owners. We keep challenging them to do more.
That's why the shelter has had this sign on the front door for months. "We cannot take any more cats! We DO NOT have any room!!!"
I visited a dozen survivors in the SPCA kitten nursery the other day. They squealed and purred and climbed up my leg.
Take me home. Take me home.
The SPCA shelter is open from 10 am to 4 pm Monday Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, and from 10 am to 7 pm Thursday and Friday. The number is 454-4479
If you can't take me home, write a check to the CNYSPCA 5878 E. Molly Road, Mattydale 13211.
Betsie shrugs again when I ask what's to be done about all those homeless cats. There's little time for reflection between complaint calls.
I say maybe the county executives ought to call an out-of-control animal emergency. All cats would have to be spayed or neutered, or the owners could face serious fines, maybe jail.
We put a mobile unit of vets on the road to catch the feral animals and see to "fixing" them.
The mayor and Common Council could step up and pass cat-control ordinances to try to put a fence around this mess.
Those little squeals are cries for help.
