After two massive waves of kittens this season, the rescue is bracing itself for the flood of felines to continue, along with the warm autumn weather.
Cat Rescue Dunedin trustee Debby Foster, who attended the Humane Society conference in the United States last month, said long or continuous kitten seasons were becoming an international trend due to global warming.
"In some of the warmer countries, they no longer have kitten seasons, they just have a continuous flow of kittens coming through," she said.
Dunedin’s warm summer and autumn meant that there had been no slowdown in demand for Cat Rescue Dunedin’s services, at a time when the rescue was facing a sharp rise in costs.
"We had a very big February and April, and are tracking towards taking in at least as many cats and kittens as we did last year — which was 845," Mrs Foster said.
So far this year, Cat Rescue Dunedin has taken in 295 kittens under 6 months of age, including 91 in April alone.
The numbers put pressure on its Caversham intake centre and about 30 volunteer fosterers.
"We have to focus on kittens at the moment, because those first eight to 10 weeks are crucial — if we can get them socialised with people and other animals in those early weeks, they are much easier to re-home," Mrs Foster said.
Adding to the pressure is the fact that adoptions have slowed, while the cost of pet food and supplies, as well as vet care, has increased with the cost-of-living crisis.
The Covid pandemic had also had an impact, with fewer opportunities to desex cats leading to a flow-on effect of higher kitten numbers, she said.
Despite its ongoing efforts to deal with cat colonies around greater Dunedin, the number of cats and kittens cared for by Cat Rescue Dunedin has almost doubled in four years.
In 2019, the rescue took in 462 cats and kittens, rising to 612 in 2020, 722 in 2021 and 845 in 2022. The number of kittens has nearly tripled — from 265 in 2019, to 602 in 2022.
Colony Project
In a new project, in partnership with SPCA Otago, Cat Rescue has launched a major volunteer effort to deal with a huge feral cat colony around the home of an elderly woman, which may include up to 80 or 100 cats.
"This colony shows just how quickly feral cat populations can get out of hand — I suspect it started off with just a couple of stray cats the lady started feeding, and has grown from there," Mrs Foster said.
"The lady just became overwhelmed — it is something that we see quite often."
One female cat can be responsible for 30 cats — her own offspring and further generations — in one year.
"At this colony, we have set up trail cameras to try and gain a clear idea of the numbers, and we are uplifting kittens as quickly as we can," Mrs Foster said.
Cat Rescue Dunedin was feeding the colony, at a cost of $50 a day, while it brought in traps and worked on removing the cats — a process that was likely to take months.
The SPCA had offered to provide vet treatment for the cats, which would be incredibly helpful.
"However, we do have a problem, which is that our intake centre is full and definitely not large enough to bring in large numbers of cats.
"So, we are searching for another space where the overflow of colony cats can be kept while they are vet checked and sent out to fosters, or re-homed.
"So, if there is anyone out there who can help us with this, please get in touch."
More traps and donations of food were also urgently needed.
Cat Rescue Dunedin is reliant on donations, grants, volunteers and fosterers to run its intake centre and charity shop, and care for the hundreds of cats and kittens in need.
Anyone who can help out with donations of money and food, would like to volunteer or would like to become a fosterer should visit the website catrescuedunedin.org.nz and click on the "how to help" button for details.
