"Pregnant spays
January - when all the cats seem to come into heat...
I can’t help but feel overwhelmingly disappointed and betrayed when I hear of rescue organizations who are holding pregnant cats for delivery. People who are actively trapping and working to help decrease the community cat population are having to alter and return kittens as young as two months old - because there is nowhere for them to go. Foster space is filled up, there is simply nowhere to hold them all. I wonder if those organizations who are advertising how they are taking in pregnant cats have any idea of how disheartened the people actively trapping feel.
Do I like the concept of spaying a pregnant cat? Of course not. It’s a terrible decision to have to make. And yet when I hear of rescues who taking these pregnant cats and then detail the complications those cats had, I think “and yet you put her through that?” When I think of the Rescue money that goes into the three months of fostering for the mom and kittens, the resources used and the homes taken up by those kittens while other already born kittens are put back in the bushes, I’m afraid I lose respect for the word Rescue.
We all used to be on the same page, but with the advent of social media and the cute pictures of little babies with their mommies, attitudes changed. Sadly a lot of those attitudes changed because those cute pictures are moneymakers. I only wish those doing Rescue would understand the impact they are making in helping to turn people away from being able to accept the necessity of spaying pregnant cats. This post may make some people angry - I understand that. But if it makes you angry, I want to ask if you are actively doing TNR, if you are seeing hundreds of kittens who are altered and put back outside because there is nowhere for them to go. And I'd ask you if you are aware that 75% of kittens born outside do not live to see their first birthday. 75%. Disease, starvation, predators, parasites, accidents - if you are doing TNR, this is the reality.
The kitten pictures in this post are seven week old babies who were just trapped. They are scared, they will take time and resources to tame down and get adopted. They were already born — I will take care of them.
And remember - if you don't want to be faced with spaying pregnant cats - trap now, while they are in heat!"