This past August marked 20 years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, displacing more than a million people, devastating thousands of lives, and creating an unprecedented animal welfare crisis.
In the weeks following Katrina, our very own Karen Little traveled to New Orleans to join animal rescue teams in locating, trapping, neutering, and returning colonies of cats that had survived the storm. Karen wrote about her experience in our Fall 2005 newsletter:
While the destruction was enormous, I was thrilled to find happy cats in managed colonies – spayed and neutered cats with ear-tips – who had weathered the storm quite well! Although I happily and successfully trapped-neutered-returned colonies of cats, there are still grave concerns about what happens to them now. Will people keep putting food out for them once the rescuers leave? Who will continue to look for the cats missing from homes? What happens when homes are bulldozed, as many will be, and their shelter disappears?
In reality, none of these questions can be answered with certainty. But one thing we can be absolutely certain of – as in 100% without a doubt – if these wonderfully hardy cats have been spayed or neutered, they will not produce more litters of kittens, and their lives will be better, no matter what happens to their people or to their place.
Alley Cat Advocates Newsletter, 2005, Volume 6, Issue 1
