Seventy-three-year old State College resident Shirley Fonda said her house is too full of cats for Penn State students to continue treating their pets poorly.
Fonda spends her waking hours feeding and caring for the 75 abandoned and stray cats she houses in her Park Forest home -- cats she said she's taken in as a result of some students abandoning their pets during winter and summer breaks.
"A good number of them are from students just dumping them off," Fonda said. "I'd say I've reached my limits. I can't afford it anymore. I paid over $9,000 in medical expenses [for the cats] last year."
Cheryl Sharer, a full-time employee at the Pennsylvania SPCA Centre Hall Adoption Center, said the shelter has a constant problem with abandoned animals -- especially after Penn State students head home for the holidays and leave their pets behind.
"Part of the problem is from students," Sharer said. "We always get very busy around Christmas time and the first month of summer."
Sharer said she blames the problem on all Centre County residents, but the shelter is busiest around the time when Penn State students are leaving the area.
Donna Herrmann, of the The Hundred Cat Foundation, Inc., said her facility spayed or neutered about 600 cats this year alone. They experience an increased number of calls every spring, when unspayed female cats are abandoned during winter break begin to give birth.
"There is a huge feral cat population in State College, and some is definitely from students," Herrmann said.
Fonda said she receives cats from people who can no longer take care of them and abandoned cats living in colonies. The cat colonies can contain upwards of 50 cats and center around student apartments and houses.
"I've done rescues in Vairo Village, by the Toftrees Resort and Briarwood Apartments," Fonda said. Briarwood Apartments is one of the few apartment complexes for students that allows pets, she said.
Six rooms of Fonda's house function as homes for her cats, which she is constantly trying to find owners for.
Penn State student Katie Fields lives in a Nittany Garden apartment on Waupelani Drive that allows pets and kept a cat earlier this year. But she said she quickly learned of how tough taking care of a pet can be.
"I only had the cat for four or five days before I gave it back to the original owner," Fields (senior-art education) said. "Financially, I couldn't do it."
To students who do take on the responsibility of a cat, Fonda strongly recommends getting it spayed or neutered, and vaccinated.
"Students don't realize it, but shelters can help you with medical expenses," she said. "If you get a pet, be responsible."
