The Animal Welfare Society in West Kennebunk has stepped up to do its part to cut down on the stray and feral cat populations in southern Maine, and thanks to grant funds, any feral cat in York County can now be spayed or neutered for free. Cats brought to the animal shelter will also receive a free examination and a rabies shot.

The spay/neuter program is funded by two $5,000 grants ”“ one from the Humane Society of the United States and one from the Belvedere Foundation, which is based in Maine.

While individuals are welcome and encouraged to bring feral cats to the shelter, animal control officers in Biddeford and Sanford are also being proactive in their communities to help with the problem.

In Biddeford, Animal Control Officer Garth Russell told the Journal Tribune that he has already begun efforts to trap, neuter and release feral cats, working with individual cat colonies one at a time.

While spaying and neutering cats cuts down on nuisance behavior, which often results from mating rituals, Russell said, it also helps control the population of feral cats.

According to the AWS website, the shelter cares for more than 2,000 homeless cats and kittens each year, and those who have not neutered their male cats or spayed their female cats are contributing to the over-population problem.

While there isn’t an exact figure, the over-population of cats is a problem, according to animal welfare experts. The range of estimates for feral and stray cats ranges from 10 million to more than 50 million, according to a report by Andrew Rowan, chief scientific officer of the Humane Society of the United States. 

One contributing factor is the low rates of spaying and neutering cats, gestation periods and the large litters that cats can have. Gestation is only about nine weeks for a cat, and with multiple kittens in each litter, one female cat that is not spayed can contribute many babies to the wild cat population.

In addition to working to spay and neuter feral cats, AWS and the Shelter Spay/Neuter Clinic are also working to help pet owners do the same for their household cats. Unless your cat is strictly a house cat, it could be mating with stray cats when it spends time outdoors, which leads to more stray cats or an unwanted litter that pet owners may not be able to afford.

AWS currently offers reduced prices for spay/neuter surgeries and rabies vaccines for cats belonging to low-income residents of York County; $5 surgeries and rabies vaccines for cats belonging to residents of Biddeford and Sanford who receive state assistance; free surgeries and rabies vaccines for mother cats, if the kittens are given to AWS for adoption and the owner keeps the mother and lives in a town that contracts with AWS; and $45 surgeries for cats, regardless of income level or town of residence.

It is great that organizations like AWS are implementing plans to ensure animals have homes and health care and that organizations like the Humane Society and Belvedere Foundation are supplying funds to make the work possible. This will definitely help control the stray/feral cat population in southern Maine, making those animals healthier and reducing the associated problems with wild cat colonies.

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Today’s editorial was written by City Editor Robyn Burnham Rousseau on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.