May 11, 2007 (San Mateo) – Beginning today and through July, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA (PHS/SPCA) will be adopting, for free, cats at least 8 years old. The promotion coincides with what shelters call “kitten season,” the annual spring and summer flood of incoming kittens which leads to adopters bypassing older cats awaiting adoption.
“The idea is to avoid a cat-astrophe,” said PHS/SPCA President Ken White. “As an organization, we take flack for going against convention, but we are consistent in that we look for ways to save lives, which this will do.”
The catastrophe is the lives of middle-aged to older shelter cats during spring and summer months. They get little or no attention from potential adopters who are drawn instead to cute, bouncy kittens and languish in cages for months, perhaps even longer than a year until they can be placed in homes. Older cats with medical conditions may be euthanized due to a lack of available space.
Some shelters will argue that animals adopted to the public for free aren’t properly valued, while others may contend that people with bad intentions will seize the opportunity to get cats for free.
PHS/SPCA counters that adopting older cats as part of this promotion is far better than seeing cats languish and potentially be euthanized. Plus, they rely on their staff matchmakers to spot bad matches.
“People with bad intentions will simply not spend the time we require for our adoption process,” said shelter spokesperson Scott Delucchi.
“I know we’ll have to answer to some members of the public, and possibly even some of our own volunteers who question the promotion, but we are clear,” continued Delucchi. “This is good for animals and will mean we are able to place more into homes this spring and summer.”
Today, PHS/SPCA has 14 cats at least eight years of age, and another dozen or so awaiting space in the adoption areas. Kittens continue to enter the shelter population daily.
Unlike the cats advertised as “free to good home” in the paper and online, PHS/SPCA’s free cats come with all the same extras included in all dog and cat adoptions from the shelter: a spay/neuter surgery, license, microchip form of identification, health exam and a post-adoption health assuredness plan.
“That cat advertised as ‘free’ in the paper will cost most people at least $200 if they do what we do for free with every adoption,” said White. “We are aggressively seeking good homes for cats who have at least three or four of their nine lives left.”
PHS/SPCA is open for adoptions seven days per week. Weekday hours are 11 am to 7 pm while weekend hours are 11 am to 6 pm. The shelter asks potential adopters to arrive an hour before closing in order to complete the adoption process. Some cats are featured on PHS/SPCA’s Web site.