Inside the kitten room at the Humane Society of North Central Florida, swarms of high-pitched meows and tiny paws rush over to eagerly greet potential adopters.
With the start of summer, the shelter prepares for one of its busiest times: Kitten season.
So called “kitten season” typically runs from April to late October, following the breeding season for feral cats. Since Florida is closer to the equator, its season can start as early as January or February and run into November, said Danielle Bays, senior analyst for cat protection and policy at the Humane Society of the United States.
At the Humane Society of North Central Florida, Executive Director Chelsea Bower said they saw an influx of kittens starting in May. This season, the kitten intake has already reached several hundred, she said. But their kitten rooms have no more than 25 to 30 kittens at a time.
“When we get kittens, we take in the whole litter and mom, so it adds up very quickly,” Bower said. According to the National Library of Medicine, the median litter size is three kittens and the mom can have more than one litter per year.
The shelter also sees an influx of puppies during this time and thankfully, also an increase in adoptions. Within the first two weeks of June, the shelter has 67 animal adoptions, 44 of which came from their North Florida Pet Adoption Day on June 8.
Bays said the abundance of kittens being born often puts a strain on animal shelters. Kittens born in the wild have around a 75% mortality rate in their first six months of life, she said. Among other things, spaying and neutering can help prevent future litters from meeting that fate.
Gnv Rescue Cats, run by Makenzie Thomas and Jennifer Solomon, also helps treat and adopt cats. Thomas is a 19-year-old pre-vet student at the University of Florida, and this is her first year fostering during kitten season.
“Now that we’re in the full swing of kitten season, people don’t want to adopt adult cats because they know we have kittens,” she said.
She pulls cats out of the Putnam County Animal Control and other county shelters, which she says are often functioning at over capacity. After vaccinating the cats herself, she gets them neutered or spayed with the help of a local vet she is shadowing. Since August, she has adopted out close to 150 cats.
“I find it very fulfilling to do,” she said. “It’s also very rewarding knowing we can get the moms off the street to prevent hundreds, potentially thousands, more cats from being homeless.”
The humane society in Gainesville relies on help, sending kittens to be adopted through PetSmart and adults through the Feline Good Cat Café. Bower says the cats get adopted very quickly.
While domesticating, vaccinating and neutering outdoor cats can ensure their welfare, some are better off left alone. Candice Hirt, director of operations at Humane Society of North Central Florida, said for a lot of people, it’s instinctive to want to just grab a kitten they see. Oftentimes, their mothers are nearby, and they are in good care, she said.
“No one is going to take as good care of kittens as mom is going to,” Hirt said.
She urges people to check a kitten’s body condition before bringing them into a shelter. If they’re clean and have a big, full belly, it’s best not to separate them from their mother. Bays agrees, advising people to wait until they're older if they’re healthy and safe.
An alternative to rehoming is a process called TNR: trap, neuter, and return. After being trapped, community cats can get treated and chipped to reduce the number of kittens born in the wild that wind up flooding shelters. If a wild cat’s left ear is clipped off, it’s a sign they’ve undergone a spay or neuter surgery.
“The best way to help kittens is really preventing them from being born,” Bays said.
She said she feels that there has been much more acceptance and mainstreaming of community cat programs, whether through rehoming or TNR.
“Cats are increasingly popular as pets,” she said, and Gainesville is no exception. Thomas said she adopts out to almost exclusively college students. Bower said Humane Society of North Central Florida gets a lot of college student fosters who miss their pets at home. With many students gone for summer break, fosters are especially needed at this time.
“This is literally my dream job,” Bower said. “Highlights are just seeing the connections between humans and the animals and having people come back to visit and tell me how much these animals mean to them.”
After completing a short application and having a conversation with staff, one can adopt a kitten for $125 or a cat for $100 at the humane society.