New Yorkers for Companion Animals
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This spring, more than torrential rainfall is being dumped on the city. Animal rescue groups say it's also a time when record numbers of animals, especially kittens, are being surrendered by their owners.
The ASPCA, Humane Society of New York and animal welfare groups have deemed June as Adopt a Cat Month, to help ease the burden of the influx of animals on already overcrowded shelters.
"It seems more like Dump a Pet Month," said Patty Adjamine, director of New Yorkers for Companion Animals, an all-volunteer, no-kill rescue group based in Manhattan. "It's just mind-boggling the number of cats and dogs that are coming into the shelters this month."
In the past few weeks, Adjamine has fielded at least 12 calls a day from owners wanting to give up their cats. Allergies, always high on the roster of excuses, is followed by: owners moving to no-pet apartments, people failing to make provisions for their animals in case of emergency, and couples having a new baby.
Lack of spaying, neutering
A big problem in the city, Adjamine said, is people's failure to spay and neuter their pets.
"When a cat gives birth to a litter in the middle of the living room, people think, 'Oh, I'll just drop them off at the pound,'" she said. Her role then becomes "messenger of bad news" to those who see shelters as dumping grounds for unwanted pets because the animals often have to be euthanized. Acknowledging that it's tough to criticize people during these financially strapped times, Adjamine said the public needs to understand the reality. "We just don't have the space for every animal," she said. "When you break a commitment to your animal, for whatever reason, the animal will die."
On her frequent trips to the Center for Animal Care and Control, Adjamine takes older and harder-to-place animals that the city-run shelter system would otherwise put down.
An estimated 40,000 animals are euthanized at the city shelter every year.
"We'd rather avoid doing that," said center Acting Director Julian Prager, but he noted that the shelter is "pretty much always jammed to the rafters."
Prager said that the shelter system, beleaguered by budget cuts, requires a helping hand from the community.
"It's irresponsible to bring animals into this world that you don't intend to provide care for," he said.
Desperate for volunteers
The dozens of the city's dedicated grass-roots, nonprofit rescue groups operate without government funding. Few have a shelter facility, and all rely on donations, an army of volunteers and foster caretakers, who board animals until they're placed in homes.
"We're desperate for foster care volunteers and adopters for middle-aged animals," said Holly Staver, president of City Critters, a nonprofit rescue and adoption group. Every year, its volunteers rescue more than 1,500 animals from the streets in midtown and downtown Manhattan.
"We're in a crisis," Staver said.
Adoption events will be held throughout the summer. Today, from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., Eartha Kitt, the original Catwoman on the 1960s "Batman" TV series, will be promoting adoptable animals at the ASPCA's Adopt a Shelter Cat event at 424 E. 92nd St.
The center will offer a low-cost vaccination ($10) and microchip clinic ($20) today at its shelter in Rego Park, Queens, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For information on the city's shelters and rescue groups and other adoption events, log on to www.animalalliancenyc.org
E-mail: amysacks1@hotmail.com