Best Friends Animal Society encourages people to use National Feral Cat Day on Oct. 16 as an opportunity to learn how they can be part of the solution to make life better for homeless cats.

Some simple steps to help homeless cats:

• If you feed stray cats, spay and neuter them so that the breeding cycle is stopped.

• Keep your own cats from becoming statistics. Keep them indoors. Get them spayed or neutered, vaccinated and micro-chipped. If you want your cat to have outside experiences, please consider screening-in a porch or patio, building a cattery, investing in special cat fencing, and/or teaching your cat to walk on a harness.

• Support your local community trap/neuter/return (TNR) groups. Donate — even small amounts add up. Volunteer a couple of hours a month.

• Become a caregiver for a local cat colony.

• Foster adoptable kittens or lost house cats rescued during TNR operations.

About Best Friends Animal Society:

Best Friends Animal Society is a nonprofit, membership organization building no-kill programs and partnerships that will bring about a day when there are No More Homeless Pets®. The society’s leading initiatives in animal care and community programs are coordinated from its Kanab, Utah, headquarters, the country’s largest no-kill sanctuary. This work is made possible by the personal and financial support of a grassroots network of members and community partners across the nation. In 2009, Best Friends celebrates its 25th anniversary. Learn more at http://www.bestfriends.org

[PHOTO: juliezickefoose.com]

In Georgia, the Athens Area Humane Society will stop accepting feral cats next year, and local officials may turn to Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) to manage the thousands of wild cats that roam the city.

The society has a philosophical difference with the county with respect to the way in which they deal with feral cats. Executive Director Crystal Evans feels that keeping unadoptable feral cats — wild animals — in cages for a week before killing them is cruel and futile. “We would argue, for a truly feral animal, that’s inhumane,” she said. “These are cats that have had basically no human contact, so basically what you’re doing is scaring them to death for seven days and then killing them.”

Evans explains that the approximately 120 aggressive feral cats taken to the humane society each year occupy space that could be used for adoptable pets, forcing more cats to be euthanized and upsetting donors. They’re also a danger to employees, she adds.

This philosophical difference conflicts with the way in which the city of Athens would like the feral situation to be addressed, so the society is backing out of its $100,000 annual contract with the county.

Athens-Clarke officials now have a year to figure out how to control the feral cat population, estimated at 8,000 to 20,000.
They might turn to an organization like the Campus Cats, a volunteer group that traps feral cats, spays/neuters them, vaccinates them and returns them to the area in which they were trapped. Currently, TNR is illegal in Clarke County, but not on University of Georgia-owned land. Advocates are lobbying county commissioners to change the local law to permit it.

More and more local governments are allowing TNR, and a few, such as Jacksonville, Fla., are turning over feral cat management to TNR groups.

Legalizing TNR could be an uphill battle. TNR is not without its detractors and for every cat lover who feels that TNR is a humane practice that should be a legal alternative to trap-and-kill, another will argue that TNR does nothing to reduce feral populations and disrupts the environment.

TNR should be legal but not the sole means of managing feral cats, Athens-Clarke Commissioner Kelly Girtz says. “I don’t think anybody thinks of it as the silver bullet, the be-all end-all. It’s something that’s useful, but not in all circumstances.”

“The simple fact is neither is a perfect solution, but what we want to happen is for individuals to be able to choose,” Evans says.

[PHOTO CREDIT: David Manning, OnlineAthens]

Imagine enjoying a beautiful bike ride in glorious Spring weather and coming across a foreclosed home in which you learn that nearly 60 cats were abandoned without food or water?

If you’re Gail Silver with Silver Bells Rescue in Ohio, you mobilize immediately and do what needs to be done to keep those cats from being picked up by animal control and immediately euthanized. That included getting other rescue groups involved.

Lynne Heldman with Save Our Strays (SOS) immediately assisted by placing the easiest cats to catch, as well as trapping the cats that had the most urgent medical issues. Janet Corbett with Wildwood Pet Network interviewed potential fosters and adopters. Anita Barron with Pet Alliance worked to find fosters, resources and funding for this very large and expensive initiative.

In cooperation with the Cincinnati SPCA, several veterinary hospitals offered discounted services; Fannie Mae, the lender that owned the house also assisted; neighbors who live on the block where the cats were found came to their aid; fosters and other volunteers who heard the story showed up to help, nearly 60 cats were rescued or accounted for, including six cats and kittens who did not survive. Many of the rescued cats required extensive veterinary services to bring them back to health. Click here to read more about the rescue.

A group of artists from around the country created original art from images of the foreclosure cats and donated their work to raise money to fund the rescue efforts through the Foreclosure Cats Art Project. The work is dazzling, and although the originals have been  successfully auctioned, you can purchase a calendar and other products with the images through the Foreclosure Cats Online Store.

The Foreclosure Cats Art Project was so successful that it spawned another rescue effort of a feral colony in an abandoned factory. The Factory Cats Project is raising money for TNR efforts at the abandoned factory, which also includes fostering, socializing and adopting out adoptable cats within that colony.

If you live in Ohio and can provide a home to one of the five remaining foreclosure cats or one of the factory cats, click one of the links below. Don’t live in Ohio? You can help by making a donation on the site or buying from their online store.

• Adopt a Foreclosure Cat
• Adopt a Factory Cat
• Foreclosure Cats website
• Foreclosure Cats Art Project  
• Foreclosure Cats Online Store
• The Factory Cats Project

In Los Altos Hills, California this week, City Manager Carl Cahill ordered the removal of the barn cats that have lived at the city-managed Westwind Community Barn for the past six years. According to City Clerk Karen Jost the action was taken for health and safety reasons.

When barn members and neighbors recently observed town public safety officer Steve Garcia setting traps, they expressed concern, and justifiably so: barn cats and other feral cats taken to the Palo Alto animal shelter are routinely euthanized, a policy that’s consistent with many other shelters.

“I like animals, I like seeing them around up there,” Los Altos Hills resident and longtime barn-member Linda Swan said. The cats were originally imported to help control the rodent population.

“There’s a lot of grain up there people feed their horses,” she said. “When horses eat, they spill it all around. Each stall probably has something that’s attractive to rats.”

“Now that we have a pro(fessional) exterminator taking care of the rat issue, (the cats) have no purpose,” City Councilman Jean Mordo said. “We love cats, all of us, so we are concerned.” He said the trapped cats were returned to the animal rescue group from which they had been adopted in 2003.

Six years ago, Friends of Westwind members adopted four barn cats from Humanimal Connection, a rescue group that rehomes displaced feral cats. Volunteers provide cat food to supplement their vermin diet. Although the cats have maintained good health, Humanimal Connection is available to fund any needed vet care.

The three cats trapped thus far are being held at the home of Humanimal Connection volunteer Judy Baker. “We’re still holding out hope that they can eventually go back to Westwind,” Baker said.

Failing that, she said she would pursue finding another barnlike setting to place them.

“I’m really so surprised, because when we put them there we thought, ‘God, what a wonderful home for cats,’” Baker said, noting that it wasn’t surprising the cats had been unable to keep the barn complex free of rodents. “It’s a big barn. It’d be hard for (a few) cats to keep up with that whole place.”

The Portola Valley Training Center has maintained and fed barn cats since 1990, according to Janet Neff, a volunteer who has fed the Westwind cats since meeting them while riding there.

Currently, residents and local animal rescue volunteers are negotiating with the city council and Cahill to return the cats to the barn and establish volunteer oversight of the felines. Let’s hope they can be returned to their home very soon.

Although there is no information on the means by which the exterminators are dispatching the barn vermin, Mr Cahill and his colleagues should consider NATURAL extermination. This could easily be accomplished in conjunction with a feline extermination force by encouraging barn owls on the property. Barn owls are voracious hunters, especially while raising their young. Each pair of barn owl parents will raise six to eight young at a time, and each nestling will devour an average of six mice/rats/gophers per night while growing into fledglings. This natural method of vermin control does not introduce poison into the ecosystem, which is important. Rats and mice who are poisoned in turn poison the predators who may take advantage of a struggling, dying rat and ingest the poison.

If you wish to contact Mr Cahill to ask him to rescind his eviction notice, here’s his contact info:

Carl Cahill, City Manager

Address:
Town Hall Offices
26379 Fremont Road
Los Altos Hills CA 94022

E-mail:ccahill@losaltoshills.ca.gov
Telephone: (650) 947-2514
Fax: (650) 941-3160

Donald Bloom climbs a little hill in the Riparian Preserve Water Ranch, dragging a cart of food on squeaky wheels. “Sawyer!” he calls out. “Freckles! Ginseng!” As he parks the cart beneath a mesquite tree in the embankment and takes out the food, a dozen cats of all hues and temperaments scamper toward him from the undergrowth.

They could well be his pets, but they are mostly abandoned domestic cats dumped by their owners in the Gilbert preserve.

“People have been releasing animals in the preserve – it’s a major problem,” Bloom said. “The cats are pretty friendly, but the feral cats take a longer time to be domesticated.”

The animals are as much the victims of the economy as their onetime human masters. Foreclosures and job losses are prompting many people to abandon the cats in the preserve, especially with shelters filled to the brim.

They’re also dumping other domesticated creatures, including geese, ducks, roosters, tortoises, rabbits, doves, even goldfish.

It’s a tough situation. Desert Rivers Audubon claims the cats kill an average of two birds per day (this seems extraordinarily high to me) and are destroying the habitat. Bird lovers want the cats removed.

But removal means almost certain death. The Arizona Humane Society refuses to take the cats. An alternative is to trap and remove them to the county (Maricopa County Animal Care and Control) which will euthanize them or “arrange adoption according to the temperament of the cat.” In a shelter with limited resources, adoption is extremely unlikely.

Meanwhile, Bloom is convinced that his population stabilizing program, recommended by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, is the best way to help both the cats and birds.

The daily feeding keeps the territorial cats in one area of the 110-acre preserve, and helps keep them domesticated. Only newborn kittens are feral.

“Cats will stay in and not expend energy if they have food coming to them,” he said.

Funds are low for the group and volunteers are scarce. But Bloom plods on.

“I’m trying to undo the injustice to these animals,” he said. “I’m trying to give them a second chance at life because domesticated animals belong with humans.”

Mr Bloom, thank you for your dedication. We hope bird and cat lovers can reach accord soon.

Read the entire article here.

The big black cat stayed in the neighborhood but avoided capture for seven months. Miraculously, he sustained no injuries from his latticework collar.

On Jan. 8, Montgomery set a trap outside a crawlspace beneath a house where Lucky was hiding. The next day Lissy Holryd, the trap, neuter and release coordinator for the Animal Alliance of Cape May County set a larger trap and caught him. Veterinarian Matt Schwert drove to the shelter to remove the latticework and while he was at it, did some snip-snip-snipping and took care of Lucky’s boy bits.

Lucky was released back to his neighborhood on Jan. 11th. Montgomery said he would frame the latticework and hang it in his office.

The new law was recently passed by the City Council to control free-roaming cats.

Originally, the law only held cat owners responsible for damage their own cats might cause. But it was later modified to include all feral cats in the city, so that now anyone who “harbors, houses, keeps, maintains or cares for cats” is subject to a fine if the cat causes property damage.

In other words, if a feral cat is on a resident’s property and causing a nuisance, that resident can take action against the persons who help support the animal — even if they doesn’t technically own the cat.

Mayor Ellen Polimeni said the city would need “a reliable account, photos or collaborating testimony to prove a resident is caring for a troublesome feral cat.” Residents can report destructive cats to the police, and a warning will be issued before the fines are imposed.

The new law will go into effect next month.

This is a colony of ferral cats living in a miniatures theme park who are thriving despite opposition (Italian society is very polarized about cats, and park workers complain about them) thanks to a passionate owner of the park. A calendar published for the last two years and now this video have turned difficult situation into an asset.

So grab a double espresso and some biscotti, and enjoy!

In a reader? Click here to view.

I just finished the online photo essay, “Urban Tails… Inside the Hidden World of Alley Cats,” and am unable to convey in words what a lush and soulful experience it was. The online preview (which features over 100 high-resolution photos) is a promotion for the printed book which is available for purchase at Amazon. Prints, calendars and cards are available for purchase at urbantailsbook.com.

As you turn the page, each photo is a new delight, seemingly better than the one before it. One would think that in a book like this, text would be superfluous, but the narrative is a purrfect and poetic counterpoint. It’s a richly evocative experience.

I’m not saying one more word because it will waste valuable time you could be spending enjoying it. Check out the online preview, then click over to Amazon and buy the book.

The following article on the ground-breaking new program in Jacksonville that has already saved 650 lives was written by Jennifer Hayes, a member of the Best Friends staff. We can only hope that one day programs like this will be available in every community.

Go directly to jail, do not pass go, and do not collect $200; that is what happens when you select the wrong card in Monopoly. However, it is no game when a feral cat is captured by most animal control officers. Fortunately, thanks to the new Feral Freedom program, the outdoor cats residing in Jacksonville, Florida have essentially received a “get out of jail free” card – which makes everyone winners.

What started out as discussions to microchip all the cats being sterilized at First Coast No More Homeless Pets (FCNMHP), exceeded everyone’s expectations when Ebenezer Gujjarlapudi, the Jacksonville Director of Environmental Resource Management, offered to send all feral cats to the clinic instead of the city shelter where they would face certain death.

Instead they are spayed or neutered, vaccinated, ear tipped, treated for ear mites and fleas, microchipped, and best of all, returned to where they came from, without ever having had to step a foot into the shelter.

Thanks to a six month grant funded by Best Friends Animal Society, the pilot project officially began on August 1 and has already saved approximately 650 cats.

In the past, the only option for trapped ferals was euthanasia. Now, Rick DuCharme, founder of FCNMHP states, “Every surgery we do is a cat saved; it’s a cat that is going to live, instead of one who will die in the shelter.”

Working collaboratively
The City of Jacksonville Animal Care and Control (ACC) educates the public about the new program, loaning out live traps to residents, and picking up the captured cats to be brought to a protected area outside the shelter. FCNMHP collects the cats twice daily, to be housed overnight for surgery the next day. They are then returned to where they were originally trapped the following day.

“We’ve always thought that feral cats were the biggest problem we would have to face in animal welfare in getting to a no-kill community. And it seems like this has possibly turned out to be one of the easiest solutions we have, if in fact all we have to do is fix them and put them back where they come from,” noted DuCharme. He went on to say, “It’s certainly easier than finding 12,000 dogs and cats homes every year. These cats in reality already have a home. All we’ve got to do is fix them and put them back, so they’re not causing problems with anybody.”

Program expansion
While the vast majority of cats through the program are returned to where they were caught, occasionally one is found to be unsuitable for re-release. Monroe (pictured to the right) is one example, when it was discovered that she was blind due to a viral infection. Those cats are placed with local rescue organizations to find loving, indoor homes. In fact, Monroe is currently available for adoption from Lucky Cat Adoptions and despite her disability, has proved to be a daredevil who does not require any additional medical care.

While the program was originally intended to only fix cats who had proved to be a nuisance to the point where ACC was called, they are finding more and more people with colonies in need of their service. In fact, FCNMHP Program Manager, Cameron Moore, says “It’s kind of like a cat soap opera every day.”

Just recently, a woman captured one cat to be fixed. However, when he was re-released, eight more felines were seen in her yard. Though she did not consider herself a “cat person,” she could not bear to see the neighborhood strays go hungry, so planned to utilize the program further, to prevent her nine from reproducing to become 100.

This is not an isolated incident and while a wonderful resource for the community, funding is needed to help finance the additional sterilization surgeries of those unanticipated felines.

Pioneering live-saver
Nikki Sharp, Campaigns Manager for Best Friends, is very enthusiastic about this innovative new program. “I’m hoping that people will see that this is ground-breaking, not just because feral cats are not being killed in the shelter, but because the shelter is actually one of the partners that’s doing the trapping of the feral cats.” Of course Jacksonville benefits as well, saving money that had previously been spent on euthanizing and disposing of the cats. Plus, fewer animals being brought in to the shelter reduces the likelihood of disease transmission among the adoptable residents.

“We do believe this has definitely raised the bar in terms of getting us closer to expecting homeless, stray, and feral cats to be seen more as community cats that need our protection,” commented Sharp. She hopes that once all the data collected during the six months is analyzed, it will prove to not only save the lives of those cats who went through the program, but will translate into significantly reduced euthanasia at the shelter.

For now though, every cat through Feral Freedom can truly be considered a life saved.

“Not only are we doing 3,600 cats a year, but we’re doing the most effective 3,600 cats a year because now those cats that are yowling, fighting, and spraying; they’re not doing all that any more,” summarized DuCharme. “It seems like it’s a win-win all around.”

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1. The best way to support the Feral Freedom program is to donate. The program is costing about 50% more than anticipated, due to the additional colony cats who need their services. Any contributions will be very appreciated and will help toward their life-saving mission.

2. FCNMHP truly values their volunteers and has plenty of available opportunities to help:

• Cleaning and animal preparation assistance is needed at the clinic. No medical experience is necessary; they will be happy to train interested volunteers.
  
• Volunteers can ride along and assist during drop-offs.
  
• For those who may not want to work directly with the animals, assistance is always needed with office work and phone calls.

  Please e-mail Debbie Fields dlfields@bellsouth.net to sign up to volunteer.

Article courtesy of Jennifer Hayes, Best Friends staff
Photo credit: photos courtesy First Coast No More Homeless Pets