14 DAY TRIAL // Hot weather means hot cats.
And now droves of cats and kittens are swarming into animal shelters nationwide, due to the global warming, as one pet adoption group says.
Several shelters of the national adoption organization called Pets Across America face now a 30 % increase in intakes of cats and kittens from 2005 to 2006, and the massive influx of cats, stray, owned or feral, is signaled by other shelters across the nation.
The huge number of cats is the result of an extended cat breeding season due to the general higher temperatures, as signaled by PAA, one of the oldest and largest animal welfare organizations in America.
"Cats are typically warm-weather, spring-time breeders," said the group's president, Kathy Warnick.
"However, states that typically experience primarily longer and colder winters are now seeing shorter, warmer winters, leading to year-round breeding."
"Basically, there is no longer a reproduction lull with cat breeding cycles, and unfortunately, it seems more people are bringing boxes of kittens into our agencies during winter now," she added.
The best option for stopping the cat boom is to make sure pets are spayed or neutered.
"We have long discussed the benefits of spaying and neutering cats," said Pets Across America Vice President Bob Rhode. "It is likely that global warming is probably not going to be slowing any time soon, therefore, it benefits everyone when pet owners take action and spay and neuter their pets."
Many researches have signaled that global warming is impairing the breeding seasons of other species, like migratory birds and penguins. Concerning breeding, reptiles could be the most threatened by global warming. In this group, from sea turtles and lizard to crocodiles, sex determination is based on the nest temperature.
Cooler nesting temperatures induce the development of males while higher nesting temperatures cause the development of females. But rising temperatures are already inducing a male shortage in many populations of reptiles.