Kitten crisis

Residents may think dropping off unwanted animals at the Humane Society is the right thing to do, but staff says the practice has led to an animal surplus that is causing an unnecessary burden.

Staff at the Thunder Bay and District Humane Society reported a recent increase of kittens dropped off at the Rosslyn Road facility. Judy Decicco, secretary of the board of directors for the Thunder Bay and District Humane Society, said the spike in cats dropped off adds to the organization’s overall operating cost.

"We’ve had a tremendous increase in drop-offs for cats and kittens," Decicco said. "Some of these kittens require special medication, special food and it’s a tax on all our resources."

Decicco said they dropped the adoption fee for kittens that have stayed at the Humane Society for longer than six months and hoped this would increase the rate in which cats leave the Society.

Within the past week, Decicco said staff found about 23 kittens left out overnight. The abandoned kittens were no older than four weeks and often looked thin and small. She added that the Society now has about 130 cats and kittens.

"Most of the kittens that have come in are in isolation," Decicco said. "We don’t know their health history and we don’t want to subject our cats that are already here to more diseases that these kittens could possibly be carrying."

Most kitten drop-offs take place in the summer. But drop-offs don’t have to be the solution for unwanted pets, Decicco said.

"First, don’t let your cats have kittens," she said. "If you see a stray hanging around, don’t feed it. You aren’t doing it a favour. We do have a waiting list here. If you call in and try to hang onto your animals for as long as you can."


Kirstie Tibbs, 17, is a student employee with the Humane Society and said with the number of kittens dropped off; it made her wonder how many people didn’t care about their animals.

Tibbs said she wanted to work with animals and to do something that made a difference. While she said she enjoyed her job, the increase in abandoned kittens has made it more challenging.