Kitten Season and Donations for Berkeley Humane

Spring is here! It is the season for bright green leaves and blossoming flowers. It is also the season for kittens.

Over the next few months, we expect hundreds of kittens to come to Berkeley Humane. While we try our very best to help these little ones get off to a great start, it can be challenging to accommodate such a large number of animals over such a brief period of time. Caring for these kittens will require an immense amount of resources including manpower, specialized food, supplies, and medical care.

With that in mind, we wanted to acquaint our readers with some of the financial realities of our work here at Berkeley Humane.

Caring for kittens costs more than caring for older animals. Like human babies, kittens require a lot of resources - our staff and volunteers feed them around the clock, stimulate them to ensure proper digestion and provide medical care including vaccinations. Additionally, if a kitten doesn’t have a mom, we make sure it receives special food so it can grow up to be healthy and strong.

Here is a rough breakdown of how much Berkeley Humane spends on caring for different animals:

-$15 a week to feed a cat, on average. This is because they require wet food in addition to dry food.

-$10 a week to feed a dog.

-$20 for one vaccination (kittens receive multiple vaccinations to be fully protected).

-$25 for one flea treatment.

-$150 to spay or neuter an animal. We give this service to every animal that comes to our facility.

Such expenses can add up. On average, it costs roughly $900 per animal for a two-week stay at our facility (a typical stay is between 10 days and two weeks). Roughly half that amount is for medical care, reflecting Berkeley Humane's commitment to help injured or sick animals who might otherwise be overlooked in the overpopulated shelter system.

Our highest adoption fee is $250. That means we pay $650 or more for every animal we connect with a loving home.

That’s why your support is indispensable.

We have the passion, drive, knowledge and skills to help as many animals as possible. But we cannot do this alone. Your help in whatever form - whether volunteering time, making donations of food, blankets or toys, or money - will help us care for the animals until they find a loving home. And we know from experience that healthy and happy animals are more likely to find a new family quickly.

So please know that no type of help is too small. Every bit counts.

If you are interested in making a donation to Berkeley Humane this kitten season, please feel free to contact us. (You can donate online here: https://www.berkeleyhumane.org/Donate-KS-Web)

We’ll be thrilled to hear from you and will welcome any questions or ideas. We sincerely hope we can come together as a community to care for animals in need!

You can contact us at: information@berkeleyhumane.org or (510) 845-3633 Monday through Friday.