Dumped Cats In Pendleton
PENDLETON - Dumping cats is a problem in Pendleton.
KEPR stood in a garage full of 65 stray cats today.
"All I want to do is get these cats to family," said Cindy Spiess.
Cindy Spiess rescued many of them from Pendleton's river walk and brought them to a garage she rents. The river walk has become a popular drop spot for strays. It's kind of a vicious cycle. People see the cats - so they leave dishes of food. People wanting to dump cats see the food and believe it's a safe place to leave animals behind.
Sherry Zweig works at the Humane Society. That may be why someone decided to leave a box full of kittens on her doorstep at home.
"They were dropped off at the door. The mom was nowhere to be found. They were no more than a day old," said Zweig.
Cindy runs her own shelter, Pet Utopia.
"We've got an overcrowded situation in our shelter. We have 65 cats there and another 65 in foster homes we're trying to place," said Spiess.
They're trying to fix the problem by fixing the cats.
"The cat gets trapped in here (shows traps). Then we cover the trap to calm the cat down. Then we spay the cat and then release it where we found it," said Zweig.
Another solution - sending the cats out of state.
"We had one person come from California. We met them in Portland with the cat and gave it to them. Then we flew several cats to Seattle. Flew them in SeaPort Air. They flew the cats for us," said Spiess.
Another effort to stop a ballooning problem in Pendleton.
KEPR stood in a garage full of 65 stray cats today.
"All I want to do is get these cats to family," said Cindy Spiess.
Cindy Spiess rescued many of them from Pendleton's river walk and brought them to a garage she rents. The river walk has become a popular drop spot for strays. It's kind of a vicious cycle. People see the cats - so they leave dishes of food. People wanting to dump cats see the food and believe it's a safe place to leave animals behind.
Sherry Zweig works at the Humane Society. That may be why someone decided to leave a box full of kittens on her doorstep at home.
"They were dropped off at the door. The mom was nowhere to be found. They were no more than a day old," said Zweig.
Cindy runs her own shelter, Pet Utopia.
"We've got an overcrowded situation in our shelter. We have 65 cats there and another 65 in foster homes we're trying to place," said Spiess.
They're trying to fix the problem by fixing the cats.
"The cat gets trapped in here (shows traps). Then we cover the trap to calm the cat down. Then we spay the cat and then release it where we found it," said Zweig.
Another solution - sending the cats out of state.
"We had one person come from California. We met them in Portland with the cat and gave it to them. Then we flew several cats to Seattle. Flew them in SeaPort Air. They flew the cats for us," said Spiess.
Another effort to stop a ballooning problem in Pendleton.
More to Explore
Learn about changes coming to commenting