Cat rescues greatly consume money and time. This post is about supporting cat rescues through financial donations. Please also consider volunteering to reduce the time burden also if able. Even a couple of hours can help.
When it comes to cat rescue expenses, keep in mind that every one is run differently and has different financial requirements. This post will review some very general estimates that will likely vary for individual cat rescues.
This scenario example assumes a cat rescue with 60 cats, and 4 seperate cat facilities.
Cat Food
There are different grades of cat food. The problem is some foods are higher quality than others. Often the higher grade ingredients accompany a higher price. The example in this scenario is for upper midpriced food. The cats can survive on lower quality food, but some is such low quality that you question if it is food at all.
In a cat rescue cats are often held indoors with no way to go out and hunt for better food. In such a situation it’s like being a prisoner forced to eat whatever scraps you are given. In order to offer the cats an improved quality of existence, and more quality ingredients a mid-quality food is a great way to go.
Wet food is healthier for cats since it does not dehydrate them like dry food. Regardless, when running a rescue with 60 animals it becomes a huge challenge to feed so many cats multiple wet food meals daily. Often boarding catteries feed dry food since its far less of a time burden. Also it’s generally far less expensive to feed dry food than buying wet cat food.
Sadly, food at a cat rescue is a major expense regardless of what quality of food they use.
Using midgrade cat food could reasonably run $700 per month for dry food.
Please donate food money to a local cat rescue today.
Cat Heat
Depending whether or not a cat rescue is in a cold region heating animal facilities can be a major expense. Clearly Winter seasons are the most expensive. Furthermore, some Winters are colder than others. The colder the temperatures reach where the cat rescue is located, the higher the heating bill will likely be too.
There are different heating utilities available which also affect costs. Often larger cat rescues are located in rural locations. One reason for this is that many highly populated areas have laws in place restricting the number of animals aloud on an individual property. Such laws often do not exist in rural areas.
When a cat rescue is located in rural country areas propane is a common form of energy that is used to heat facilities.
It’s not unrealistic for a cat rescue to spend $3,000 on propane related heating expense for a single cold Winter.
Please donate funds to help an animal rescue keep the kitties warm.
Cat Litter
Cat litter comes in a variety of forms, prices, weights, and odors.
-Clumping litter: Heavy containers or bags, easy to remove litter clumps, expensive but can be used longer than many other types
-Clay litter: Heavy bags, heavy but easy to dump, cheaper than clumping litter, can only be used once
-Corn husk bedding: Light weight, but comes in large heavy bags, can be dusty, is easy to dump, generally cheaper than clay litter, generally high in odor, can only be used once
-Pine shaving bedding: Light weight, but comes in medium weight bags, almost no dust, very easy to dump, cheaper than clay litter, generally high in odor, can only be used once
Since cat litter generally goes strait to the garbage in a very short time it comes down to cost for many rescues. Regardless of the option they use it can result estimated costs of $100 per month. Not as expensive as some of the other costs of running an animal rescue but still could add up to an estimated $1,200 anually.
Pet Medication
Cats living in rescues need medicine just as people often do. Unfortunately many cat rescues are underfunded and many cats may not be able to receive the medications they need. In many cat rescues only the most serious health problems will be able to be treated.
Sadly many cat rescues operate on a shoestring budget and can’t afford any medicines at all. Many cat rescues are run by big hearted, well meaning but largely underfunded people.
Sometimes cats may be euthanized for lack of medicine.
While the costs of medicine vary widely, it doesn’t take any imagination to monthly medication bill of $150.
Consider making a cat rescue donation today to help cover expensive medicine costs.
Veteranarian Services & Medical Treatment
Veteranarian medical appointments for cat rescues can generate overwhelming expenses to cover. Sometimes there just isn’t enough money to afford vet appointments for animals that need help. At times animals are euthanized as an alternative to paying for a surgery or expensive proceedure.
The situation is horrific if numerous animals become sick or need veteranarian assistance all at the same time.
Obviously there are large differences in costs from one cat rescue to another. Each cat rescue can have large changes in vet costs each month. Many vets pay hundreds of dollars in a month to vet offices. Even a very conservative $200 per month for a large cat rescue adds up quick. This estimate is on the low end for many cat rescues with bills of many hundreds some months.
Helping cat rescues with their vet bills can be an enormous help that saves cats from pain, suffering, or death.
Please donate even a small amount to a cat rescue to help pay for veteranarian services today.
Cat Buildings & Facilities
Cat rescues need facilities for the cats to live in. Some cat rescues have multiple small buildings for the cat dwellings. Each of these facilities cost money. Often barns, sheds or other facilities have costs that are thousands of dollars. Just the building alone is a large enough expense expense for someone to pay. Then if you add the building costs on top of the other expenses in this post you can see how animal rescues can go broke quickly.
Even a small $2,500 facility is a large amount of money to pay when you have to pay a the other bills. A home mortgage, vet bills, animal medications, animal food, heat in the Winter, cat litter and general supplies all add up quickly.
Please support a rescue today by donating funds to help pay cat facility expenses.
General Supplies, Utilities, And Repairs
There are lots of general supplies, utilities, and repairs that cat rescues need each month to keep things going.
Here is a list of many items commonly used at cat rescues:
-Bowls
-Plates
-Mops
-Brooms
-Dust pans
-Garbage bags
-Traps
-Kennels
-Cat condos
-Blankets
-Rags
-Towels
-Electricity
-Water
-Scissors
-Wall mounted heaters
-General maintenance and repairs
-Misc items
These expenses can easily add to over $150 on the low side. Realistically just the electric bill alone could cost that depending on the cat rescue.
Please help fund a cat rescue by donating today.
Concluding Remarks
Thank you for reading this post. Hopefully you have gained larger insight into some of the financial burdens involved with running a cat rescue.
It’s not cheap and they could desperately use any financial support that you are able to afford.
Please make a donation today, then read more of the helpful topics here at animalweekly.com.
Kindest regards,
-Randy / Animal Weekly
