Some Northwest Indiana animal shelter officials say they’re seeing an uptick in pet cats coming in.

According to Michelle Duca, founder of the nonprofit Feline Community Network, a shelter/sanctuary for unwanted, abandoned cats in Hobart, more owners are dumping their pet cats, leaving them out in the elements where they may die of starvation, illness or injuries.

They’re left on the streets, at animal shelters, in trash bins.

Duca said she knows they were someone’s pet because some have collars, some are dumped along with their carriers and many have been declawed, leaving them even more vulnerable. Since she started taking calls at the end of July, she said, abandonments have doubled.

“We recently took in six cats. We lost two. All were adults, and all were declawed but one. People are throwing them outside, and they’re unable to fend for themselves,” Duca said.

“I think there’s still a philosophy that pets are disposable. I’m trying to educate people on how delicate they are,” she said.

Duca told of one owner who dropped their cat off at a shelter and wanted the carrier back.

Duca said some shelters, especially the no-kill shelters, are at capacity with abandoned cats. Duca said she has taken in some that weren’t accepted at those shelters but has reached her limit as well.

She has about 55 cats there now, some of which she knows will stay with her until the end.

“Pets are disposable items these days. It’s amazing,” said Frieda White, executive director of the Humane Society of Northwest Indiana in Gary.

She said some dogs are facing the same fate. She said the Gary shelter recently adopted out two dachshunds that were brought in, and someone was dropping off their Pomeranian they no longer wanted.

White said the Gary shelter was at capacity recently but just adopted four cats cats out, so it can take in a few more.

Someone who answered the phone at Lake County Animal Control said it also has seen an uptick in the number of pet cats being dumped on the street and at the shelter.

Duca said her recent additions include Penn, a 4- to 7-year-old cat found in Portage. It has a bad eye and an ulcer from an injury.

“He was a stray with a collar. Someone found him. His collar was hanging off him, he was so skinny,” Duca said.

Melvin is the latest starvation case at the Feline Community Network. He was found in the middle of the street in Cedar Lake. He has no muscle tone, and his nails were embedded in his feet. At age 15, Melvin will probably live out his remaining days at the Hobart shelter/sanctuary.

Mouse in the House was dumped outside Duca’s shelter building, and Bootsie is a starvation case with no teeth whom Duca pulled out of a local shelter, where its owner dumped her.

Duca and White said animal dumping is a year-round problem, but it becomes more acute in the winter when people who have been feeding the strays become more concerned for them as the temperature drops and take them to shelters.

“As soon as the snow starts falling, I’ll be getting more calls,” Duca said.

White said she expects even more unwanted animals to be dropped off after the holidays. She said parents sometimes buy a pet that their child wants, thinking that the child will take care of the pet. When that doesn’t happen, the pet sometimes ends up at the shelter.

Duca said another reason for abandoned pets is the cost to maintain them.

“People don’t realize that cats have a lot of medical issues,” Duca said.

She said the nonprofit shelter spends about $10,000 a month on medical bills alone for the cats there. She relies heavily on donations.

White and Duca help each other to find homes for the cats. White said she will trade some of her adult cats in exchange for Duca’s kittens, which are easier for White to find families for.

To help stem the problem, Duca said there needs to be a more aggressive spay and neuter program.

White said cats should never be allowed outdoors, where airborne illnesses can attack them. Neither White nor Duca will adopt pets as gifts, and Duca won’t do same-day adoptions.

“Our new joke is we’re a dating service. We find the right cat for the person with the right personality,” Duca said. “They’ve been failed once. We won’t let them be failed again.”

Karen Caffarini is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.