ALLENTOWN, PA - In the midst of this year’s kitten season, shelters are experiencing the bulk of their cat and kitten intake right now. Typically during warm months, feline breeding season has been complicated by pandemic related interruptions and adjustments.
"We didn’t know what to expect with the pandemic. We weren’t sure whether people would be surrendering their animals, or wanting to adopt them. We didn’t know which way it was going to go but luckily, people have been really interested in adoptions," explains Lehigh County Humane Society Development Coordinator, Jackie Folsom, "There’s been a really high demand for adoptions, particularly for dogs, throughout the lock down. But we are entering kitten season, we have tons of litters and so we always need help with cats, that’s the big challenge in the summertime. Adoptions are up but so is intake for cats specifically."
The Lehigh County Humane Society expects the Lehigh Valley to see a large growth in the cat population this summer. And because trap-neuter-return services are unavailable in many areas, animal groups are seeking more fosters than ever to help save the lives of cats, kittens and litters.
"To respond to that, we started a program called, ‘Summer Lovin’ Cat Fostering," Folsom says, "So we have a couple dozen kittens in foster or whole litters or mommy cats with kittens and that has been tremendously helpful because even if those people can’t necessarily adopt the kittens, they can taken them out of the shelter environment until they are old enough to be adopted."
With a visitor limit inside the building, staff has also adapted new requirements; visitors must wear a mask covering their nose and mouth, maintain a social distance and apply hand sanitizer before and after interacting with animals.
"We are allowing people in the building right now, only ten people at a time. So come on down, check out the animals we have for adoption on our website too. Most of our processes are online; our adoption application, an appointment to schedule a visit with an animal is online, registration and ticket purchases for all our events are online," Folsom tells PBS39 News Tonight reporter, K.C. Lopez, "Come on out to our community day in August, our purse bingo in September and our dinner in October is going to be amazing. It is going to be at Olde Homestead Golf Course. So if you like golf, you like dinner and you love animals, you should definitely come check that out! And if you are hesitant to leave your home at this point you can always send donations through Chewy or amazon."
For more information on how you can help, upcoming Lehigh County Humane Society events and fundraisers, visit The Lehigh County Humane Society's website.