By JESSE GRAHAM
FRIENDLY homes and animal lovers are being sought to help foster an influx of kittens being brought to Animal Aid over the Christmas period.
Animal Aid CEO Mark Menze said that staff and foster carers were rapidly preparing for “kitten season” – the time of year where people surrender or abandon a huge amount of cats and kittens to the shelter.
“They come in through various ways – public finds, people will find kittens and bring them in, or rangers will find kittens that have been dumped, or people surrender kittens when their cats have a litter,” Mr Menze said.
“Typically, they’re underweight – anything from a couple of weeks old or up.”
In the last financial year, Mr Menze said 18 guinea pigs, 31 rabbits, 71 cats and 611 kittens were fostered out through Animal Aid – with a total of 23,984 foster care days recorded in the year alone.
This is where foster carers come in.
Mr Menze said that foster carers took care of the kittens or other animals until they were between eight to ten weeks old, when they were assessed by a vet, de-sexed and put up for adoption.
“A lot of it is about socialisation for the animal – kittens want to play, cats want to roam, so being in someone’s home is the ideal environment, and they can get used to kids and other animals,” he said.
“I’m speaking first-hand, because my wife and I foster a lot of cats and kittens.”
In the lead-up to the season – which runs from November to June – Animal Aid will be running an information night at its Coldstream shelter from 6.30-8.30pm on Thursday, 29 October.
At the meeting, Animal Aid’s head vet, Dr Adele Scannell and shelter cattery manager, Lynne Bell, will speak about how to care for the animals and monitor their health, as well as other information about fostering.
“We have a few foster carers that might drop off over the course of the season, and so we need to regularly recruit and keep on top of it,” Mr Menze said.
To register interest in the information night, call Animal Aid on 9739 0300.
