The summer “kitten season” is starting earlier and lasting longer, which is bad news for both animal shelters and wildlifetl;dr They don’t know for sure that warmer temperatures are responsible for the lengthening of the cat fertility season, but shelters are observing that this is happening.
While some conservationists propose the targeted killing of cats, known as culling, cat populations have been observed to bounce back quickly, and a single female cat and her offspring can produce at least 100 descendants, if not thousands, in just seven years.
Although sterilization protocols such as “trap, neuter, and release” are favored by many cat rescue organizations, Lepczyk said it’s almost impossible to do it effectively, in part because of how freely the animals roam and how quickly they procreate. Without homes or sanctuaries after sterilization, returning cats outside means they may have a low quality of life, spread disease, and continue to harm wildlife. “No matter what technique you use, if you don’t stop the flow of new cats into the landscape, it’s not gonna matter,” said Lepczyk.
Maybe they’ll start
drinking up ponds. Though they’ll have to somehow beat
Google to it:
In 2019 alone, Google requested, or was granted, more than 2.3 billion gallons of water for data centers in three different states, according to public records posted online and legal filings.