{"id":23208,"date":"2022-06-15T06:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T10:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=23208"},"modified":"2022-06-14T20:49:38","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T00:49:38","slug":"the-professional-cat-killer-has-done-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/06\/15\/the-professional-cat-killer-has-done-it-again\/","title":{"rendered":"The Professional cat killer has done it again!<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Of the 3,000 cats turned into Sheriff Grady Judd Polk County Animal Control so far in 2022, approximately 50% have been euthanized, according to Polk County Animal Control administrator Marie Herbster. It\u2019s an average of 146 euthanasias per month, according to the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It\u2019s heartbreaking\u2019 but cat lounges aim to curb the kill rate in Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hang out with cats, adopt cats and help curb Polk County\u2019s infamous euthanasia rate. That is the stated mission of new cat lounges that are opening in the county this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnimal control does the best they can to control the problem but unfortunately, because it\u2019s such a huge issue, they have to put down a lot of them. It\u2019s heartbreaking and I want to prevent that as much as I can,\u201d said Janette DeLoach, who opened \u201cBotany Cats\u201d in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in this business to try to change lives and try to help every animal. Everyone here is dedicated to life-saving measures. We absolutely try our best and it\u2019s absolutely heartbreaking,\u201d said Herbster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said most cats are euthanized due to health or behavioral reasons, due to them being feral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polk County Animal Control works with 160 rescue organizations to find animals a home, including SPCA Florida. The emerging cat lounges aim to treat cats before they end up at Animal Control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get our cats from the community. We get probably three to four calls a week like, \u2018I have cats in my backyard,\u2019\u201d said DeLoach.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Her \u201cBotany Cats<\/a>\u201d lounge is mobile. Visitors can spend time with the cats and have the option to adopt them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get them all vetted. So spayed, neutered, microchipped, tested for common diseases, vaccinated, of course, and flea prevention and de-wormed, and then we bring them on the camper and get them adopted,\u201d said DeLoach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Former photojournalist Cindy Skop is taking a similar approach with her brick-and-mortar location called \u201cKitty Cat Lounge<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lounge is still in the works but will include a lounge area with coffee, food, and WiFi \u2013 and the cat area in the back. An hour with the cats will cost $12 and adoptions are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Her cats will be provided through Saving Paws Rescue of Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there are others, we\u2019re all doing the same thing. The idea is to still reduce that euthanasia rate and get cats into homes where people can feel like I do when I have my cat in my lap,\u201d said Skop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skop hopes to have Kitty Cat Lounge open by the end of the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Purrology Caf\u00e9<\/a> will be also opening soon at 5343 S. Florida Ave<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cat and dog adoptions at Polk County Animal Control are free every Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of the 3,000 cats turned into Sheriff Grady Judd Polk County Animal Control so far in 2022, approximately 50% have been euthanized, according to Polk County Animal Control administrator Marie… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[2998],"class_list":["post-23208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-the-professional-cat-killer-has-done-it-again"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}