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The Jacksonville Humane Society, the City of Jacksonville\u2019s Animal Care & Protective Services and EveryPet are teaming up to educate the community during kitten season through their \u201cDon\u2019t Kitnap\u201d initiative.<\/p>\n
The program provides guidance on how to help outdoor kittens survive during the upcoming kitten season.<\/p>\n
The effort comes after the Jacksonville Humane Society (JHS) and Animal Care & Protective Service (ACPS) took in a combined 8,548 kittens under 5 months in 2025. Additionally, JHS served 1,326 kittens through its Kitten Krusaders foster program.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n The organizations define kitnapping as the act of removing kittens from their environment when they should have remained with their mother.<\/p>\n While many people instinctively attempt to rescue kittens found outdoors, the participating agencies ask the public to avoid this reaction because a kitten\u2019s best chance at survival is staying with its mother. It may take several hours for a mother cat to return to her litter.<\/p>\n The shelters advise finders to watch and wait for the mother cat to return. If she does, residents are encouraged to provide food, water and shelter until the kittens reach eight weeks old. At that age, the family should be spayed or neutered and placed in permanent homes.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n If the mother does not return, JHS offers coaching on care and instructions for finding the kittens new homes once they are ready.<\/p>\n For kittens experiencing true medical emergencies, such as open wounds, visible underweight or difficulty breathing, ACPS can be reached at 904-630-2489. Residents can also report emergencies through the MyJax app or at myjax.custhelp.com.<\/p>\n Underage kittens are the most fragile population in local shelters and often require immediate placement in foster homes, which puts a strain on staff and volunteers. Removing kittens without the mother also allows her to continue reproducing in the community.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Lawrence Nicolas serves as the CEO of the Jacksonville Humane Society. Nicolas said the community plays a vital role in these life-saving efforts. \u201cWe are always thankful to the community for their dedication helping save kitten lives,\u201d Nicolas said. \u201cIf we work together to spread the message \u2018Don\u2019t Kitnap,\u2019 we can help the community save countless lives this kitten season in Jacksonville!\u201d<\/p>\n Community members can support the Kitnap initiative by sharing messaging from the JHS Facebook page<\/a> or by distributing flyers in their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Volunteers are also needed for all three participating organizations. More information is available at jaxhumane.org\/kittenhelp<\/a>.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville Humane Society, the City of Jacksonville\u2019s Animal Care & Protective Services and EveryPet are teaming up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[18751,761,15740,116,118,117,88231,88233,88232],"class_list":["post-188155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-acps","tag-free-action-news-jax","tag-humane-society","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-kitten-season","tag-mother-cat","tag-the-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}