It's not a new problem and it's not an unusual problem, but the number of homeless kittens in Humboldt is certainly an increasing problem.
"They're coming from every little town around Humboldt, from Bruno to Englefeld," said Wanda Price, manager of the local SPCA. "We're the only local shelter in all of the Humboldt district."
According to Price, the kitten problem has been getting increasingly worse over the last two years. Part of the reason, she said, is because owners aren't taking responsibility for their cats.
"People aren't spaying and neutering their cats," she said. "Then they let them out to roam the streets, where they wander and impregnate other cats."
The city's bylaws require pet owners to license their pets. They are also not allowed off the property without the presence of the owner.
"The onus is on the pet owners," said Norman Mattock, bylaw officer for the City of Humboldt. "I can't go knocking on everybody's door and asking if they have a pet and if that pet is registered."
According to Mattock, the main reason for licensing a pet is so that he can return the pets to their rightful owners if the pet is lost. If he doesn't know whom they belong to, they go to the local SPCA.
"We've got to stop taking them because we just don't have the room for them," said Price. "People should exhaust every option first before bringing them here."
One of the avenues people have been taking is publicly asking for others to adopt through social media websites like Facebook.
On Oct. 23, Joan Duke found an eight-week-old kitten on 5th Street. Then a mother with two kittens were found and taken in by Susan McInnes on Oct. 21. Two days prior, Joan Hergott-Frank found a three-week-old kitten who had been abandoned by her mother. Like this, there were many more kittens and adult cats found in the last few months. All of these individuals posted about the felines on Facebook.
"I knew I couldn't keep him and the SPCA wouldn't take him as they have too many already," said Agnes Buschmann on Facebook while asking someone to help with a kitten she had found. "Therefore, I had to leave him at the vet's ... and in two to three days he will be put to death ... unless someone rescues him. Please, someone, don't let that happen!"
According to Price, if pet owners don't start stepping up and taking responsibility to spay and neuter their cats, it's going to become everyone's problem soon.
"The regular people are the ones calling me about cats pooping in their gardens or spraying on their houses and getting into their garbage," said Price. "Everyone should care because these are living creatures."
It's an even bigger problem on farms, said Price. People think that because anything can happen to a cat while on a farm, it would be pointless to spay or neuter them. However, both Mattock and Price say that a lot of those cats will wander for miles when they're in heat. Some even end up in the city by traveling under people's cars.
"We can try and educate the public, but there's always going to be someone who says, 'I didn't know,'" said Mattock. "People have to step up and not let their kittens run wild."
Without homes or room in the shelter, those felines are left to die in the streets. According to Price, that's not a pretty sight.
"People think cats are a dime a dozen," she said. "Nobody cares."
