Henderson County woman concerned about growing number of feral cats

HENDERSON COUNTY, Ky. (WEHT) — A growing number of feral cats is causing some concern in Henderson County. Residents say it is out of control and there are not enough resources to take care of them.

“They are precious animals to a lot of us, and unfortunately people are not having their cats spayed and neutered, and then we are ending up with an overpopulation of cats,” says Patricia Grossman.

Grossman and her family recently rescued a cat and her 8 kittens. She says the lack of resources makes it harder to give them the proper care. Grossman says the Henderson County Humane Society helped her catch the cats. But like many shelters in the Tri-State, it is struggling with funding and is at maximum capacity, and could not take the cats in.

The shelter also runs Animal Control, which is contracted through Henderson County. According to the Animal Control website, employees can only pick up cats that are sick or injured, and stray cats may be too sick or scared to be handled or adopted.

“They are just left to fend on their own,” Grossman says.

Eyewitness News looked to see if there were any codes or ordinances in Henderson County about cats. We only found rules for dogs.

Thankfully, in this case, Grossman says there is a happy ending.

“We are working on getting some foster families together. We reached out to one lady I know, and she is going to foster the mother. And the Vanderburgh County Humane Society is going to help us with supplying the needs for that,” says Grossman.

Grossman says they are looking for foster homes and shelters that will take the kittens.

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