This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Two elderly Brigham City brothers took in a single cat a few months ago. Not long afterward, they brought in four more. Then the kitties began breeding and, in a few months, the number of cats had increased to 40 and the situation in and outside of the apartment had gotten out of hand.
After looking over things, Brigham City Animal Control invited the Salt Lake-based Utah Animal Adoption Center to Box Elder County on Friday morning to help solve the problem.
"There were cats everywhere," said Lindsay Ortega of the Utah Animal Adoption Center. "They were inside and outside. They were anywhere from five weeks old to young adults."
Ortega, who is the cat lead for the Utah Animal Adoption Center, said workers in her organization took 33 cats back with them and had other foster families pick up the other seven. The group is a non-profit, no-kill shelter.
Under the organization's policy, the cats are placed in foster homes where their health will be determined during a quarantine period. If the cats are healthy, they will then be spayed or neutered, microchipped and vaccinated and then put into an adoption program where they will be placed in homes.
"Things spiraled out of control with breeding," said Ortega of the situation at the Brigham City apartment. "They were not trying to breed them. That's just what happens when animals are not fixed. You could tell there were a lot of animals and they were doing the best they could."
She said one of the missions of the Utah Animal Adoption Center is advocating that animals be spayed or neutered to end overpopulation which, in turn, ends euthanasia.