Shelters crammed with abandoned cats

NASHUA - The tumbling stock market isn't the only way to gauge the downturn in the economy. The record number of cats being dropped off at local animal shelters is also a sign of tough times.

At the Humane Society for Greater Nashua, they have a word for it. They call it a "CATastrophe."

Society officers said that in the first week of November, the organization on Ferry Road had 180 cats on hand for adoption and 40 cats off premises in "foster care." The glut was so serious the organization decided to temporarily waive its $75 adoption fee," an offer publicized in a front-page advertisement in the local daily newspaper. The society's facility is only built to accommodate 30 felines at one time.

"It's a staggering problem," said Karen Bill, the organization's executive director, who attributes the record numbers to the faltering economy and pet owners losing their homes.

Across the border, the Lowell Humane Society recently counted 150 animals, mostly cats, in a facility built to house 40.

"The majority are from owners who moved and can't take the animals with them," said Jill O'Connell, the shelter's executive director. "People move out of a house or apartment and leave the cat behind."

In Tyngsborough, Kitty Angels, a 23-year-old shelter, has also been inundated. "We don't have enough room to take in all the cats that have been abandoned," said Joan Abbot, the shelter's president.

Abbot said Kitty Angels is sheltering some 300 cats, many in foster homes. "That's a third more than we usually have," she said. "The telephone calls we're getting from people who have to give up their animals are heartbreaking."

On a recent day, the Humane Society for Greater Nashua shelter seemed overrun with cats. There were cats in cages in the hallway and whole rooms set aside just for females and just for males.

An orange tiger cat named Dorothy purred on the shoulder of a visiting 11-year-old boy. Teenagers Allyson and Courtney Condo and their mother, Lisa, of Hudson, N.H., were drawn in by the "no fee - CATastrophe" advertisement to adopt cats from the shelter. They went home with a black and white kitty named Socks.

"We visited yesterday, and the cat came over to all of us. We thought it over overnight and decided to adopt," Lisa Condo said.

Bill said the number of animals awaiting adoption at the shelter was unprecedented. "The 180 cats are the most cats we've had at one time since 50 cats were removed from a home in Nashua 2 1/2 years ago," she said.

It's a trend that's been building over the past year and a half. In April 2007, 72 cats were dropped off at the shelter. In April this year, 144 cats were brought to the shelter, "the majority of them from evictions or foreclosures," said Bill.

And the upkeep of the cats have been costly to the shelter.

Bill said the shelter goes through 500 pounds of kitty litter and 600 pounds of cat food a week, and a few weeks ago 280 pounds of Iams cat food was stolen from the shelter. The crime has yet to be solved.

The situation is also costly in terms of work hours. Bill said the shelter has a staff of 19 full-time employees, and about 100 volunteers. "Last year we used 24,000 hours of volunteer time, and this year we've already used 27,700 volunteer hours, 3,702 in October alone."

In the first week of the offer to waive adoption fees, 121 cats were adopted, but 45 more cats were dropped off. Shelter officials said the animal surrenders have been disheartening to see, not only because they are a sign of the poor economy. The abandoned pets can't fend for themselves.

"I think when you adopt an animal, you make a pet," said Bill. "You agree to love them, feed them, and provide adequate medical care. You don't just put your mother-in-law out on the curb if you move."

Like in Nashua, more animals are being dropped off in Lowell and adoptions are down, but it's only cats, said O'Connell. "For some reason people don't put the same value on cats that they do on dogs," she said.

O'Connell said the morning at the Lowell shelter often starts with a roundup of cats on the facility grounds that have been dropped off during the night.

"Usually, things are slowing down this time of year," she said. "But it's not happening. I keep waiting for it to slow down, but it hasn't."