Hannah “Kitten Lady” Shaw lives up to her name. Self-described as a kitten rescuer, humane educator, author and animal advocate, she has dedicated her life’s work to saving newborn felines.
As she explains in a YouTube video, “Most people don’t realize that kittens are often the most euthanized population in animal shelters; and most shelters aren’t prepared to provide the specialized and constant round-the-clock care that kittens need.”
The best way to save kittens? Be involved in an active foster care program.
“I work with shelters weekly,” Shaw tells me in a recent interview. “It’s challenging because sometimes people hear ‘kittens are dying in shelters,’ and they want to shake their fists at the shelter — but it’s not the shelter’s responsibility; it’s the community’s responsibility. That’s why I do these community-based events. A shelter can only do what they can do within their limited resources and space and abilities.”
Come July 21, Shaw will make her first-ever stop in Kentucky to host two free workshops at the Kenton County Public Library’s Erlanger branch. (The meet and greet with Shaw is sold-out.) One of the workshops — dubbed Community Cats 101 — will give an overview of issues surrounding feral and community cats and how to safely trap, neuter, return and ultimately care for them. She points out that 80 percent of kittens born each year are born outside to free-roaming cats, also known as community cats.
In the other workshop, which is titled Tiny But Mighty, Shaw will share a handful of her rescue stories. The title of the event shares a name with Shaw’s upcoming book, which will be available Aug. 6. In it, Shaw chronicles not only her own stories as a foster, but also lays out how those interested can help newborn kittens in their own communities. Bonus: cute kitty pics.
“I think that most people assume kittens have it really good,” Shaw says. “I certainly did before I got involved. And that’s definitely true for kittens over eight weeks — those guys, if they go into a shelter, they are typically the first one to be scooped up for adoption. If you picture a family going into the shelter, there’s a fluffy little 10-week-old kitten — those are the ones that find homes. So certainly, in that regard, kittens do have it very good.”
But if newborn kittens go into a shelter, Shaw says they’re likely to be euthanized as they cannot be left overnight and shelters often don’t have the resources available to accommodate their needs.
Having amassed over 900,000 followers on Instagram and over 800,000 on YouTube, she says the origins of her project go back a decade to when she was living in Philadelphia. (She’s now based in San Diego.)
“I was finding (kittens) in trees and under dumpsters and in alleyways and everywhere,” she says. “The more that I started helping the kittens that were outside, the more people started calling me and started saying, ‘Hey, I found a kitten, can I bring them to you?’ So very quickly I became known as the person who would help all the kittens in the neighborhood.”
Eventually, she was able to transition into Kitten Lady, her advocacy and education-based project, full-time.
Shaw says that many people aren’t aware of just how many orphaned kittens there are. In part, that’s why she is hosting the Community Cats 101 workshop — to place issues facing newborn kittens into context. When it comes to cat welfare, she says we’ve done a great job teaching people to adopt and spay/neuter their pets.
“Now the big push that needs to happen within the advocacy world is for people to know about the importance of kitten fostering and the importance of sterilizing the cats that live outside in your neighborhood,” Shaw says.
On her website, Shaw outlines how those interested can get started in the world of kitten fostering; she also provides a wealth of resources for shelters and fosters alike.
“I’m trying to build a movement,” Shaw says. “I’m trying to recruit people to change this because it’s one thing to like cute cate pictures on the internet. And it’s another thing to directly involve yourself in advocacy for a very vulnerable population. So I try to have a solid mix of cuteness, but then the serious message of what these kittens are faced with and how we can help.”
The Kitten Lady Workshops and Meet & Greet will take place at Kenton County Library’s Erlanger Branch on July 21 from 1-6 p.m. For more info visit kittenlady.org.
This article appears in Jul 17-24, 2019.
