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SOUTH SALT LAKE -- The economy has forced a lot of families to abandon their pets, and it's causing an overload of kittens at the South Salt Lake Animal Shelter.
Animal Control officer Debbie Pedersen says the problem with an animal shelter brimming with abandoned pets is due to newborn kittens. As officers ween the kittens from their mothers they need canned pet food.
"They have to be started off on a soft-food diet," she says. "So, we use the can food to get them unto their regular hard-food diet eventually."
That hard-food diet comes from state funds through a partnership with the Science Diet pet food program, but Pedersen says the program doesn't cover soft food.
Besides, she says, giving the baby animals soft food keeps them healthy.
"Regular adult cats tend to spread sicknesses around each other," Pedersen says, "and giving them the canned food keeps them eating."
The shelter also has sick animals that would benefit from a softer pet food diet. Officers are reaching out to Utahns to help supplement the food to feed these animals, many of which are abandoned.
Pedersen says the shelter is seeing more kittens this year than in 2009; and with breeding season underway, they're going to see an overwhelming number of kittens.
For more information on adopting a pet or donating canned pet food to South Salt Lake Animal Services, call 801-483-6024.
E-mail: niyamba@ksl.com
