Are East Coast shelters/rescues more overwhelmed than West Coast ?

[DriftyAlison0]

I know the shelters in my area is full or nearly full with cats but with it being kitten season its normal. I don't like the sales neither since it brings out people who shouldn't be owning a pet because they can't afford it out. But at the same time we need the adoptions. At the shelter I volunteer they still do the background checks and stuff so they make sure that they are going to a good home. I just don't like it when the people can't afford the full price comes in because that could mean that they can't afford to keep up with the pet's care.

[Anikaca77]

I know how you feel, I feel terrible when I see so many being put down every day. It's just terrible. I know I keep thinking if I could open a shelter or a no-kill place it would help but then for how long...and well I don't have the funds to even start a no-kill shelter but it's just so sad. Seeing so many homeless and not having enoguh homes. I just got a call at lunch time from a lady who runs a non-profit group and she found 14 kittens last night all of them were starving for food and she kept getting one right after another. There is apparently a lady who left her house and left the cats there unfixed of course. It's just so simple to spay and neuter but people are lazy and just don't care.

[Lizzie]

I don't like seeing adoption fees reduced either, and also worry about the kind of homes cats adopted "on sale" are going to. The sanctuary where I volunteer reduced their adoption fee last month by 50% for seniors, and this month for black cats. Since I adore black cats, this always hits me hard and I'll never get used to the unpopularity of black cats in the U.S. They are as careful as most shelters in assessing potential adopters, although they don't check references or do home checks. Sometimes I see cats up for adoption with them who have been found as strays and had originally been adopted from that shelter. There are no guarantees that any adopted cat is going to be in a home for life, or even that people will be responsible enough to return them to the shelter - who will take them back immediately, no matter how crowded they are. Even cats adopted from Best Friends, in Utah, who do run a background check and make a home visit sometimes end up as strays.

The spay/neuter units that go out into the community have been a big help in reducing the cat population, and there are plenty of low-cost spay/neuter clinics through shelters or rescues. But, as we all know, there are people who find even that too much trouble.

I'm about to start fostering, perhaps a little adoption, FeLV+ cats in the downstairs area of my home and I've corresponded with a few people out-of-state about the cats they have advertised as needing homes. I contacted a woman in Indianna about 6 kittens who came from a mother cat who was positive and she's assuming the kittens will be positive also (she's probably right.) I thought, don't judge, don't assume she simply let her unvaccinated, unspayed cat roam but it seems that's what she did and now she's looking for good homes for the kittens without having the resources to test them or even take them to a vet first. They are gorgeous brown tabbies with pixie-like ears, it's an awful shame.

Perhaps I'm wrong about the east coast having more unadopted cats. Perhaps the east coast simply advertises more, shouts for help more.