By Kim Arlington
When Kristina Vesk started working at the Cat Protection Society of NSW in 2006, she rarely saw kittens in winter. Now warmer weather means cats are breeding all year round, increasing the numbers of unwanted kittens and the threat to native wildlife from strays and feral cats.
Ms Vesk, the society's chief executive, said there used to be weeks from June to September when the shelter saw very few, if any, kittens. But with the climate changing and temperatures rising, it seems cats are increasingly on heat.
"For the past three years, I don't think we've experienced a full week at any time of year where we don't have at least a couple of kittens in our care," Ms Vesk said. "Kitten 'season' has grown longer and longer as we keep having ... enough warm and sunny days in winter that make cats think it's a good time to start breeding."
Vanessa Barrs, a Professor of Feline Medicine at the University of Sydney, said most cats do not breed in winter to conserve energy and help kittens survive. But breeding can be influenced by photoperiod, the number of available daylight hours, and "cats artificially exposed to 12 hours of light indoors ... can be induced to breed all year round", she said.
More kittens were surrendered to the Cat Protection Society in the winter of 2013, Australia's hottest year on record, than ever before, Ms Vesk said.
Last month RSPCA NSW had more than 1110 cats in its care, including 730 kittens. Of the 52,800 cats taken in nationally by the RSPCA in 2015, almost 17,400 could not be rehomed and were put down.
Erica Pankhurst, an animal behaviourist with the Animal Welfare League, said a cat's biological drive to reproduce kicked in if the weather was warm enough. During kitten season, which usually runs from spring to autumn and is in full swing in February, "there's just kittens coming out of everyone's ears."
The shelter is one that has teamed up with Just For Pets, which represents independent pet industry retailers, to rehome abandoned animals this weekend, offering pets for adoption in pet shops.
"There's only a certain number of people going to rescue shelters," Just For Pets chief executive Karen Justice said. "Making an animal visible so it is seen by pet lovers is the key to rehoming and adoption."
The RSPCA recommends early-age desexing of cats, from eight weeks of age, to prevent unwanted litters and that cats be contained on the owner's property to reduce the impact of hunting.
