Kitten Rescue: Los Angeles Edition
June 7, 2017 6:00 PM Subscribe
"A kitten nursery saves tiny lives in a city aiming to become ‘no kill’" [WaPo link]
"The shelter in the Mission Hills area houses one of this city’s half-dozen neonatal kitten nurseries, all of which have sprung up in recent years as part of an ambitious bid to lower euthanasia rates at six municipal facilities. Before the effort began, in 2012, about 57 percent of animals left the shelters alive; that percentage, or “live save rate,” is now in the mid-80s. And the goal is to reach 90 percent by year’s end, which would make this the nation’s largest “no-kill” city — where only very ill or dangerous animals are put down."
"The shelter in the Mission Hills area houses one of this city’s half-dozen neonatal kitten nurseries, all of which have sprung up in recent years as part of an ambitious bid to lower euthanasia rates at six municipal facilities. Before the effort began, in 2012, about 57 percent of animals left the shelters alive; that percentage, or “live save rate,” is now in the mid-80s. And the goal is to reach 90 percent by year’s end, which would make this the nation’s largest “no-kill” city — where only very ill or dangerous animals are put down."
Oh, man. I have raised my share of bottle babies and participated in so much TNR, but I can't imagine how much bigger a job it must be in a city the size of LA.
I remember a year or two ago, there was lots of talk about having to close down the TNR program that was managing Disneyland's feral cat population because of new laws in Orange County. However, I can't seem to find any recent articles on how that turned out.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:48 PM on June 7, 2017
I remember a year or two ago, there was lots of talk about having to close down the TNR program that was managing Disneyland's feral cat population because of new laws in Orange County. However, I can't seem to find any recent articles on how that turned out.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:48 PM on June 7, 2017
I'm really proud of the work in LA City to pull this off. I wish the LA County facilities would be marching to the same goal, but they're not and it's saddening.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:06 PM on June 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:06 PM on June 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
On the most recent episode of "My Cat From Hell" on Animal Planet, Jackson Galaxy and Instagram-sensation The Kitten Lady highlighted this problem and road-tripped 50 kittens from LA to another shelter in Boulder, CO that was able to place all of them. They acknowledged that 50 kittens is barely a drop in the bucket for the situation in LA, but it was good to see awareness of the issue being raised.
posted by briank at 5:42 AM on June 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by briank at 5:42 AM on June 8, 2017 [2 favorites]
My wife and I foster/volunteer there! Its a really nice shelter with great people. Our youngest cat is a "foster fail" from this shelter (that's when you foster and... can't quite bring yourself to give them up :) ).
We have mostly fostered the slightly older (3-8wk range) kittens, as the bottle babies are a huge amount of work (have to feed them every few hours, have to help them go to the bathroom, etc). I've fostered <1wk kittens a couple times but its not something I can do regularly.
(The sad part of fostering is there are a lot of sick kittens, and if your fosters turn out to have FeLV, there's a good chance they won't make it)
posted by thefoxgod at 12:47 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
We have mostly fostered the slightly older (3-8wk range) kittens, as the bottle babies are a huge amount of work (have to feed them every few hours, have to help them go to the bathroom, etc). I've fostered <1wk kittens a couple times but its not something I can do regularly.
(The sad part of fostering is there are a lot of sick kittens, and if your fosters turn out to have FeLV, there's a good chance they won't make it)
posted by thefoxgod at 12:47 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Our youngest cat is a "foster fail" from this shelter
Squeeeee! White whiskers on a black kitty-face is automatic heartmelt for me. Has he/she got any black beans in white feet, because if so I shall require smelling salts and a fainting couch. (And perhaps a kitten-tummy compress.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:44 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Squeeeee! White whiskers on a black kitty-face is automatic heartmelt for me. Has he/she got any black beans in white feet, because if so I shall require smelling salts and a fainting couch. (And perhaps a kitten-tummy compress.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:44 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by Mizu at 9:01 PM on June 7, 2017 [1 favorite]