MOUNT VERNON — At the Knox County Humane Society, also known as the cat shelter, the population is up and the money is down. And that presents a real problem.
“Our cat population is about, oh, maybe 250. Maybe more,” said Janice Clayton, head of the feline program at the humane society. “It’s hard to say what the ideal cat population is, but 150 is a maximum comfort level, I would say.”
It has been the practice of the shelter to not turn away any cats, if at all possible. But with the current overpopulation situation, it has had to amend that policy.
“We only take cats on an emergency basis right now,” said Clayton. “But we tell people to see if they can find homes for the cats they bring in, if at all possible.”
Funding from the Knox County Commissioners has been contingent, at least in part, on the shelter taking in every cat brought to it.
“They asked us to take in every cat and we did what they asked,” Clayton said. “Now we have too many cats. And now we’re in trouble.”
The funding from the county is only a small part of the shelter’s yearly budget, but is still much needed.
“We’re down on adoptions but there is some increase in donations,” Clayton said. “The commissioners’ funding is maybe 5 or 6 percent. But we depended on that money. Every year it’s a struggle [to get county funding]. Every year they tell us we have to do this or we have to do that. But we don’t euthanize for space. We don’t do that.”
The shelter gets the bulk of its funding from different organizations.
“We have corporate sponsors,” Clayton said. “And now we have a grant writer, which we never had before. Someone died last year and left us $30,000, but that’s almost gone. Sometimes people don’t realize that we have to feed the cats. We have to have cat litter and veterinary services. We have mostly volunteers but we do need some paid staff to be here all the time. It all adds up. And we’re in trouble.”
Cats are available for adoption for a fee. Some older cats or cats that have been at the shelter for a long time are available for a smaller fee. All cats are spayed/neutered and have the basic shots.
Information about the humane society is available by calling the shelter, located at 400 Columbus Road, at 392-2287.
