BOISE, Idaho — Both the Idaho Humane Society and Simply Cats have seen an influx of cats inside their shelters.
Since May 1, Simply Cats has gotten 268 intake requests of cats needing new homes, but the shelter is already at capacity.
“Right now, we have 60 cats in the shelter so obviously we cannot hold all of those 268 cats in need,” Simply Cats Outreach and Fundraising Coordinator Maddie Corey said.
The main reason for the influx at Simply Cats, according to Corey, is the cats needing to be re-homed as owners are faced with non-pet-friendly housing in a housing market crisis.
Recently, 16 cats were just surrendered to Simply Cats for non-pet-friendly housing, on top of all of the stray cat intakes the shelter already receives. But adoptions are down, leaving less space for more cats.
“Every summer we see this,” Corey said. “Adoptions slow down and it makes sense. More people are traveling and they don’t want to take on an animal until they know they are there for them.”
“Last year started a trend of a huge influx in the summer and this year is somehow worse than last summer because just the amount of intake requests is just insane and that doesn’t bode well with the usual case of decreased adoption,” she said.
The Idaho Humane Society is seeing much of the same. Before the holiday weekend, the shelter received more than 500 cats since June 1 and is in desperate need of foster care volunteers.
Plus the holiday weekend brought more pets to their shelter. Since Friday the Humane Society has taken in 35 dogs and 19 cats with 17 of those dogs received on Sunday alone. The Humane Society will waive redemption fees through July 8 for pets that arrived at the shelter from July 3 through July 5.
To find out more on how you can help or to learn about their adoption process clickhere.
