Brenda Goodwill has been lobbying officials to make an exception to the village code that pertains to harboring animals. She collects cats — some through trapping and others from the community — and helps to find them new homes.

Goodwill, in an effort to limit the number of homeless cats, has them spayed or neutered through local organizations, including the Chautauqua County Humane Society.

Kellie Roberts, Humane Society executive director, said the nonprofit organization receives about a dozen calls a day from the public looking to give up a cat for adoption. Some of the animals are considered “community cats,” meaning they are living outdoors but are otherwise friendly and adoptable. Others are from homes whose owners are no longer able to care for them. The rest, though, are considered feral, meaning they are not domesticated and cannot be handled or put up for adoption.

However, due to a lack of resources, be it space or veterinarians to spay or neuter the animals, the Humane Society has a waiting list to take in cats from the community. The list is prioritized — kittens are taken in quicker because they can be adopted more easily, and because it’s best to socialize the animal before they potentially become feral.

“It’s not as simple as just going down the list and saying ‘You’re next,’ because we do try to work with the individual,” Roberts told The Post-Journal. “That’s exactly what we need is the support of the community because we just don’t have the space or funding to take in every cat that needs something.”

At the moment, the Humane Society, located on Strunk Road just outside Jamestown, can keep anywhere from 75 to 85 cats at a time to make available for adoption. The group performs on average 20 surgeries a day to spay or neuter animals with the assistance of two outside vets, a full-time vet tech and a bevy of volunteers.

“We might be able to bring in more cats if we started putting them in every corner of the building,” Roberts said. “But that’s not the way to do it because then they end up getting stressed and sick and then we can’t have them available for adoption. It isn’t for the cat’s well-being for us to just take them in. We need to have a spot for them.”

Roberts said homeless and feral cats are not unique to the area. She noted that many communities have people, like Goodwill, who actively try to take in animals and get them into new homes.

The Humane Society will accept community and feral cats when a vet is available to perform surgery. Those animals are then released back into the community, oftentimes by people willing to take care of them. While feral cats can’t be accepted for adoption, many community cats — dependent on the waiting list — can be accepted by the Humane Society.

JUGGLING ACT

Roberts said even in the most ideal of situations, the Humane Society can only do so much to help curb the community pet population. She said the “main stumbling block” is performing surgeries, which are done on-site.

“It doesn’t really matter how we slice it right now,” Roberts said, “with this space and the medical personnel that we have available to us, we physically can’t do anymore spay/neuter surgeries. If someone gave us $30,000 and said ‘Spay and neuter as many cats as you can for this money,’ in a way we can’t do anymore.”

The “juggling act” is made more difficult by the fact that surgeries need to be done early enough that the animals can be returned to their owners the same day. Limited space means the Humane Society cannot perform the surgeries from 7 to 5 as the group would like.

Roberts pointed out that female cats can give birth at a young age, with those offspring capable of giving birth themselves unless they are spayed early on.

To limit the number of community and feral cats, the Humane Society is looking to partner with other organizations to perform surgeries. The organization has looked into expanding its spay/neuter clinics or using a mobile unit that would allow pet owners to fix their animals in one day. The expansion would require a vet coming in, most likely on a Saturday, which Roberts noted is easier said than done.

“Trying to get the community to help us is just so key because we just can’t do all of it,” she said. “And that’s why we are working really hard to try to find an organization to partner with or a veterinarian to come in and do maybe a Saturday surgery day or something once in a while. Every little thing helps.”

HOW TO HELP

Not all cats found outdoors need to be helped. If an animal appears well-fed, clean and friendly, chances are they are domesticated and have a place to live. However, some need a place to stay and be fed before they can be put up for adoption.

“We understand cats show up to people’s houses they can’t help or keep. Some folks are willing take the cat,” Roberts said, noting that some feral cats can be kept in barns and warehouses where they stay out of the elements and not require human contact.

“We really would like to expand,” she continued. “We would like to have a larger surgery area and hire our own vet and vet tech no matter what a little down the road. We would also like to try to do a spay day.”

The Humane Society on average adopts out around 1,200 cats and dogs a year.

Because it is a nonprofit, the local Humane Society relies on donations from businesses and the community.

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For more information on the Chautauqua County Humane Society, call 665-2209 or visit spcapets.com.