Slater case update:
On Friday January 9th, 2015 of the 23 cats that were spayed and neutered on January 8th, two were placed into foster care. The other 21 cats were returned to the acreage for the man to care for. Upon, returning to his acreage A.P.E. was able to pull 9 more cats. Of these cats, eight were young kittens under 12 weeks of age and weaned, the other one (was) a pregnant momma cat. The momma cat and five of the kittens, were taken in by a No-Kill rescue based in the Des Moines metro. This momma has since given birth to six little kittens.
We are hoping to pull the rest of the pregnant mommas and the nursing litters before the end of the week, provided foster homes are still on board. This will leave us with an estimated two to three litters of kittens under 6 months of age and “several dozens” of adult cats still to be pulled in the near future.

Ideally, we would love to help this man out by altering the cats and immediately finding them adoptive homes, or placement into a no-kill shelter/ foster homes. However, doing so is very difficult. This situation did not occur over night nor will it be fixed overnight!! We have been in contact with many reputable shelters and all of them are full of cats at any given time. Even larger, high-volume shelters cannot take on this many cats at one time (yes, we have been in touch with one in the area, as a professional courtesy since it is in their county.)
What can you do to help??? Please consider fostering or adopting. If you cannot, please consider donating funds for the ongoing vet work to get the entire colony spayed and neutered.
We are also in desperate need of litter and food for foster homes and to help the colony. A gift card to Theisens or Orschelins would be very helpful. Foster homes are using Kitten Chow and Diamond Naturals Indoor Cat Formula (red and white bag.) We can also use Diamond cat food in the 40# bags to help feed the cats still at this acreage. To save money on litter, foster homes have been using pelleted pine cat litter. We buy this at feed stores in the horse section as pelleted pine horse bedding. It is identical to the cat brand Feline-Pine. The cost is only $6.99 for a 40# bag. Donations of goods may be dropped off at the Slater Animal Hospital in Slater, IA (near Ames)
Thanks again for your ongoing support!