Volunteers support Valley Animal Center’s feral cat sanctuary in Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) — The Valley Animal Center’s newly opened feral cat sanctuary, designed to provide a safer and a more comfortable home for feral cats, received help from volunteers on Saturday to make the space special for the feral cats that call it home.

“They prefer the outdoor life. They not maybe aren’t the most people friendly cats, but that doesn’t mean we care for them any less here in our community,” said Ruben Cantu with the Valley Animal Center.

The center now has a space for them to roam freely in a safe environment. Volunteers improve the space on Saturday, but Cantu says the volunteer’s efforts go beyond simply giving the feral cats a home.

“It’s not just creating shelter space for them, it’s creating a solution to the issue. And ultimately that issue is over breeding overpopulation. There’s too many cats.”

Fresno County has a growing population of feral cats. Cantu said there are hundreds of thousands of cats across the county.

“A lot of these cats started in a home, made their way outside. They weren’t fixed and they created 10 more. And then those 10 – more maybe 10 more, and then we have 100, then we have 1,000. That’s how quick that population grows,” Cantu said.

Cantu said most of their cats were dropped off on the property or were adopted out as kittens. He hopes to create a bigger space in the future.

“We’re expanding this area into a whole other section of this part of our facility in the hopes that we can make sure that, again, this area stays healthy, safe, that these cats can coexist with each other with enough space that they’re safe from each other,” Cantu said.

For more ways on how to volunteer at this feral cat sanctuary visit the shelter’s website.