NewsLocal News

Actions

Eagle Scout project, animal rescue program tackle cat crisis in Utah

Posted at 6:13 PM, Oct 30, 2019
and last updated 2019-10-30 20:13:55-04

SPANISH FORK, Utah—There is a cat crisis in Utah. Shelters and rescues across the state are overrun with cats.

In the past year, the Utah Valley Animal Rescue in Spanish Fork, UT has double the number of cats they have helped, and the year isn’t over yet. The non-profit has already helped more than 900 cats.

No one is sure what’s behind the shelters filling up, but the Assistant Director at Utah Valley Animal Rescue knows something needs to be done.

“The cats in Utah County that are dying are feral cats, they are the cats that are anti-social. They are the cats that no one wants on their property anymore and they are dying because they do not enjoy human company,” Tanna Riggs said.

That’s where the idea behind the Working Cats program came.

“This project saves all of their lives if we can find adopters and we can find people that are just willing to let these cats roam on their land and stay in their barns and just feed and give them water every day then the cats get to survive and they get to live,” Riggs said.

The goal of the program is for 800 cats a year to be adopted; Riggs believes this would make Utah County a no-kill county.

13-year-old Quinn Potter has eight cats of his own, so when it was time to pick an Eagle Scout project there’s no surprise it had to be cat related.

“We have always had cats. We never got any of them. They kind of just came,” he said.

Now, he’s helping those same kinds of stray cats. He is building an enclosure that will allow around 35 cats to live in before they are adopted through the working cat program.

“It will definitely change the way the crisis of cats is going. How there are too many,” Potter said.

Utah Valley Animal Rescue needs people to participate in the program. For more information on the working cat program, click here. https://www.uvar.us/adoptworkingcats.html

The rescue also needs volunteers, donations and foster families. For more information, click here https://www.uvar.us/