Call for foster carers for post-Christmas kitten influx

KITTENS are flooding into a Bunbury animal foster service in the wake of Christmas and the kitten season.

A jump in the number of kittens being cared for by SAFE Bunbury is not unusual at this time of year, branch president Mark Townsend said.

Mr Townsend said the number of kittens and other animals was putting a strain on SAFE's foster carers.

He believed people were getting the message that getting an animal was for life.

"I think people are getting more educated than they were before," Mr Townsend said.

SAFE received regular requests from people hoping to surrender their pets.

He said that if someone was considering getting rid of a pet, whether it was a Christmas present or not, they should see if training fixed problems they were having.

"We always suggest going down the training path," he said.

Mr Townsend said while SAFE did not encourage people to get pets unless they planned to keep them forever, the organisation did use social media to encourage people to adopt their animals around Christmas and the kitten season.

Pet owners must sterilise their animals to prevent unwanted kittens and puppies, he said.

Last year SAFE Bunbury found new owners for 199 dogs, 197 cats, 11 ferrets and two rabbits.

The organisation is always on the lookout for new foster carers, especially when there were influxes of animals.