As an open-admission shelter, San Diego Humane Society is our community’s safety net for more than 40,000 animals each year. And the spring months see the biggest influx of animals. The reason? It’s baby season, which means thousands of orphaned kittens will flood San Diego Humane Society’s shelters in need of lifesaving care.
Kittens younger than 8 weeks old are some of the most adorable animals you’ll find in shelter environments. But they’re also some of the most vulnerable shelter animals in the country, since caring for them requires a tremendous amount of resource-intensive care. Mother cats work hard for their babies — including feeding them every 2-3 hours, helping them maintain an appropriate body temperature and keeping them clean. Many communities simply don’t have the resources to meet these around-the-clock needs for orphaned kittens.
When San Diego Humane Society opened their Kitten Nursery in 2009, it was the first of its kind in the country — and the only place orphaned, neonate kittens could get the lifesaving care they needed. In addition to providing blankets, bottles and plenty of love, staff use careful protocols to manage kittens’ susceptibility to disease and infection — especially since orphaned kittens aren’t benefiting from the antibodies in their mother’s breast milk. And to keep these little ones healthy, members of San Diego Humane Society’s medical team perform rounds in the nursery twice a day. It’s led to tens of thousands of lives saved.
Today, the Kitten Nursery is the cornerstone of a broader Kitten Program that includes nurseries at two other San Diego Humane Society campuses and hundreds of foster families that open their homes to animals in need. Once the kittens have grown healthy and strong, and are spayed or neutered, they’re ready for adoption into loving homes.
Caring for so many kittens takes a community, which is why San Diego Humane Society is currently holding its annual virtual Kitten Shower! During this special campaign, community members can select and donate a gift from the organization’s online baby registries. Each gift will change the lives of kittens in need.
To learn more about San Diego Humane Society’s impact for kittens, or to donate a gift today, visit sdhumane.org/kittenshower.
