Help Cats In Andorra Find Homes

Animal control is frantic to find felines new homes, due to a slight increase in kittens born recently.

Carolyn Fitzgerald, volunteer coordinator for animal care and control team of Philadelphia, said that unusually mild winter temperatures lengthened mating season for outdoor cats. As a result, more unwanted kittens are funneling through the shelter.

“We have what’s called kitten season,” she said. “It’s a lot longer [this year] because we had a cold winter.”

But it’s not just kittens. There are several unwanted and stray cats being taken in as well.

Fitzgerald said the shelter has taken in 1,163 cats from July 8 to 21.

If the shelter runs out of space, she said, it is forced to euthanize cats.

“When we run out of space there’s no good options,” she said. “We really exhaust every possibility.”

To help solve the problem, Fitzgerald said, animal control has lowered the prices of kittens and cats at offsite adoption centers.

Petco of the Andorra Shopping Center is one of those offsite adoption centers.

The adoption fees for kittens went down from $75 to $50 and the fees for older cats went from $50 to $10.

Fitzgerald also said that through the Adopt A Buddy program, fees adoption of a second cat to a household will be waived.

Volunteers are also needed to help feed the cats and clean their cages at Petco, she said. To volunteer, email volunteer@actphilly.org.