Area animal rescues are on the verge of a ‘cat-astrophe’

On a recent Saturday morning, 14-year-old Audrey Waddell, of Clarkston, nuzzled a furry caramel-colored kitten at the Helping Hands Rescue adoption event and looked beseechingly at her father.

“Can I keep him?” Waddell pleaded. Dad shuffled off without an answer while Audrey continued to hug the small feline with determination.

“I love cats,” she said. “They’re so therapeutic and I love when they, like, jump all over you and they attack your fingers and stuff like that. He’s super fluffy and reminds me of a bunny I used to have.”

In another corner of the empty storefront next to the old Shopko building in Lewiston where Helping Hands holds its adoption open houses, Christina Campbell, of Clarkston, wandered around looking at the few puppies in the group. She was holding her chiweenie, Chance, and said she was looking for another chiweenie — a mixed breed between a dachshund and a chihuahua.

“I actually saw a dog online and her name is Torrie,” Campbell said. “I am going to put an application in and see if I can get at least a meet-and-greet for Torrie and Chance.”

The periodic adoption events sponsored by Helping Hands is an attempt to find homes for the exploding number of cats and dogs that have been lost or abandoned this past year — a situation that one Helping Hands organizer terms: “a cat-astrophe.”

“There are billions and billions right now,” said Cathy Carlson, a Helping Hands volunteer for the past nine years.

Carlson said the all-volunteer group has more than 100 cats living in foster homes right now and “everyday we’re turning cats away. We just don’t have space for them.”

The problem of lost and abandoned pets is a recurring theme among many animal rescue and foster organizations throughout the area. These groups operate mainly with volunteers through donations and fundraisers and rely on a few veterinarians willing to offer spay and neuter and vaccination services at a reduced rate.

What few shelters there are in the region, including the Lewis Clark Animal Shelter, McPaws Regional Animal Shelter in McCall and SpokAnimal Care in Spokane, also often operate at full capacity and cannot always take homeless animals into their care.

Carlson said the main problem is that people refuse or can’t afford to have their pets spayed and neutered. What started out as a cute kitten who then gets pregnant and has babies, who are also not spayed or neutered and have more babies “and on and on and on…” becomes an unmanageable situation.

“Well, people don’t fix their cats and during the pandemic it was hard to get into a vet and it’s expensive and people don’t fix their cats anyway,” Carlson said.

Mada Schneider, another Helping Hands volunteer and foster parent, agreed that people who don’t spay and neuter their pets often become overwhelmed.

“It’s a lot more of a problem than it used to be,” Schneider said. “People who have never had problems are calling, saying, `I have an overabundance of cats that just showed up in my window well,’ or ‘they showed up under my deck.’ Because people are not spaying and neutering their animals and keeping them up to date on their records, then we end up with more sick animals. We’ve been working with houses here in the Lewiston valley that have had up to 50 cats.”

Carlson pointed out two kittens at the adoption event named “Teeter” and “Totter” who were found this summer abandoned under a slide on a playground in 100-degree heat.

“And we took them. It was hotter than heck and we had to take them,” she said. “You can’t say `No.’”

Carlson also said Helping Hands often ends up with animals whose owners have died or become disabled and have made no plans for their pets to be taken care of.

“It has been a growing problem and such a sad thing,” she said. “The animals have no idea why or what is going on and lots of times they are older animals, which makes them harder to adopt out. I don’t think people ever think about making arrangements.”

The cost of spaying and neutering cats varies widely in the area, most often in the $50 to $100 range. Vaccination prices can also start around $15 on up. Some animal welfare groups, such as the Lewiston animal shelter, offer reduced rates and others, like the Animal Rescue Foundation at Grangeville, supply vouchers for medical treatment and other needs.

Schneider said the expense of these procedures isn’t the only reason people neglect health care for their pets.

“I think that some of that could be the problem,” she said. “But I think a lot of it is, people are lazy.”

After so many years of doing this work, Schneider said many of Helping Hands foster families are giving up.

“Right now we’re asking people, `If you’re taking care (of foster animals) right now, please continue to take care of them. We’re down to about 26 fosters right now because we’re tired and people are taking breaks. So they’re calling up and saying, `We have six or seven cats that we need you to take,’ and we can’t take them. We don’t have the room.”

Audrey Williams, director of operations at Lewis Clark Animal Shelter, said her staff has been seeing a lot of stray dogs that have come into the shelter.

“We don’t know the owners; no one claims them,” Williams said. “We’ve also had a lot of people wanting to surrender their dogs, but because of the large amount of dogs that we have as strays, we’re not able to take them in.”

Williams said her staff has also determined that some people who claim they are turning over a stray animal are actually the owners of a pet who just want to get rid of it.

The shelter gets a lot of their strays from law enforcement officers who are called when there is an animal problem. Williams said the shelter serves as a resource mainly to the city of Lewiston, but also Nez Perce County, the Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho State Police, Clarkston, Asotin and Asotin County.

“So some shelters only serve their immediate county where we’re serving both Idaho and Washington,” William said.

The shelter has been offering spaying and neutering services at a reduced cost. But Williams said as of last week the vet who worked with the shelter retired and, so far, there is no replacement.

The organization is in the first phase of a building campaign for a new shelter that would be located in the Lewiston Orchards. The campaign, “Building for the Paws,” has already raised about $2.5 million toward what is expected to be a $7 million overall project.

“We are in campaign mode right now and have got quite a bit of billboards out there and newspaper ads,” Williams said. “We are relying on donations but also have been getting support from community businesses for our capital campaign.

“Definitely people are struggling to get their animals spayed and neutered because of the cost of vet care. We are seeing a lot of high demand … and everyone is doing the best they can.”

Sherrie Chamber of the Clearwater Humane Society in Orofino said her volunteer organization is continuing to see an increase in lost and abandoned pets.

“So what we’re doing is trying to get all that we can and help get them spayed and neutered,” Chambers said.

“They sometimes do have owners who love them but can’t afford (spaying and neutering). They feed and water and have a place … so we help those people to get (the pets) spayed and neutered and vaccinated.”

Like the other organizations, the Clearwater County group is dependent upon donations and fundraisers. Chambers, who is a longtime and dedicated volunteer, said progress is slow.

“I don’t know, there’s no tried and true answer,” Chambers said. “The big shelters are saying the same thing and all you can do is just keep doing what you’re doing and help stem the tide.”

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.