09/16/2026
A few years ago, a family reached out for help with nine pregnant cats. They asked if our rescue could help. I said, "Yes! I will give you NINE FREE SPAYS! Our organization will pay for everything" They said, "Oh no, we could NEVER spay a pregnant cat!!!"
Eight weeks later they reached out, frantic, "We have 47 kittens and they all need homes immediately. We cannot afford to feed them all. Some are sick and they need immediate vetcare..... We will have to put them all outdoors if you cannot take them" 😭
It is SO HARD as a rescuer not to get angry - I understand that spaying pregnant cats is upsetting (I hate it too). I understand that people feel guilty about it - But if you do not plan to take full responsibility for the kittens and you plan to dump those problems on rescues or shelters, you are part of the problem - Full responsibility is spaying/neutering all cats/kittens prior to rehoming. Not calling shelters and rescues and begging them to make room in the middle of kitten season. Not handing out more unfixed kittens in a community that has almost zero access to spay/neuter.
Against better judgement, our rescue took ALL 47 of kittens to prevent them from being released. But by agreeing to take those 47 kittens, we had to close our doors to all other cats in the community - It cost our organization $5600 to fix ALL of those kittens (including parents 😢).... Those 47 kittens took all our resources, kennels, hours as volunteers, days of driving them to appointments, finding them all homes..... For a full month, we had to turn away other cats in the community because we did not have room... Because someone else got to make the easy choice of saying, "No. I do not agree with spaying a pregnant cat" 😭
PLEASE help the rescues get ahead in 2027. Spay the cat before she is pregnant... but spay even IF pregnant (I know it sucks). We are in an absolute overpopulation crisis. Please be part of the solution. The shelters and rescues are drowning in unwanted animals with no end in sight ❤️🙏
