tagged w/ Trap Neuter Return
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Los Angeles Times...
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Getting a handle on feral cats
A nonprofit group in South L.A. employs a trap-and-neuter service to bring down the feline population over time.
PHOTO: Stray Cat Alliance founder Christi Metropole is shown with some feline friends.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
By Ricardo Lopez, Los Angeles Times
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November 19, 2011
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The 90037 ZIP Code in South Los Angeles has about 60,000 residents.
And by some estimates, almost 12,000 feral cats.
Colonies of the strays roam the alleys and backyards of these low-income neighborhoods.
L.A.'s mild weather means the cats come into season frequently, breeding like wild. Add to that residents' inability to seek veterinary care when most are struggling to make ends meet, rescue groups say.
"I can hear them right outside my window when they're fighting and mating," said Cydney Fellows, a retired high-rise window washer who lives near Vermont Avenue and 22nd Street.
Sometimes she is awakened in the middle of the night by the dozen or so cats that frequent her apartment building. "I've been living here for almost 10 years. I've never seen so many stray animals in my life."
Officials say that the city's Animal Services Department is stretched too thin to trap any cats and that when residents take them into city shelters, many are euthanized.
But one nonprofit group is hoping to decrease the number that are killed. And even more ambitiously, the Stray Cat Alliance hopes to trap and neuter at least 7,000 cats within this roughly two-square-mile area, using a grant from a private company.
"When people are struggling to put food on the table, they don't focus on feral cats," said Christi Metropole, the nonprofit's founder. "We're stepping in to fill a need. Animal Services doesn't have the budget, and residents often don't know what to do."
The group's strategy is simple: trap, neuter and return the cat to the spot where it was captured.
This method, Metropole said, results in zero population growth. Eventually, as cats die, the population will dwindle through natural attrition. The cats that remain lead healthier lives and don't fight as much because they've been neutered, she said.
In recent weeks, Metropole's volunteers have begun canvassing the neighborhood, educating residents and encouraging them to help trap cats. On Saturday, there will be a small rally to officially launch the capture effort, dubbed "I Spayed LA."
Carol Brookshire's home, directly west of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, is the ZIP Code's "trap depot."
"My yard was overrun with cats and kittens, some diseased," Brookshire said. She remembers the band of cats that occupied her avocado tree-lined backyard when she moved here six years ago.
Now they're all neutered, and she has volunteered her home to be the headquarters for nighttime trapping missions.
In her garage, she demonstrates how the steel crate traps work. She admits it takes a bit of finesse to trap. Location and bait are important. Foods with strong scents, like sardines and rotisserie chicken, do the best job of luring cats from their hiding spots.
After a quick surgery at the nearby Animal Rescue Center, a nonprofit animal hospital, the trapped felines are returned to their homes within a couple of days.
Opened in January, the hospital offers low-cost medical services for residents' pets and partnering rescue groups. Some of the cats are put up for adoption if deemed suitable.
During a drive around the area, Metropole pointed out the handful of strays roaming the sidewalks along Exposition Boulevard. She remains undaunted by the sheer number of cats she wants to trap and neuter, instead mulling over future efforts.
"We just want to be able to move on to the next ZIP Code," she said.
.Los Angeles Times...
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Getting a handle on feral cats
A nonprofit group in... more
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Cat ownership in WA is under siege by local cat laws newly introduced by the Shire of Swan and soon to be implemented by the City of Joondalup. Cat owners will be penalized by fines if their cat unwittingly trespasses onto a neighbors property without their permission. The ultimate penalty is the trapping of your beloved moggy by a neighbor in a trap supplied by the shire and the impoundment and possible euthanization of your cat if you can’t locate it within 7 days.
Location map of City of Joondalup, Western Aus...
The legal trapping of cats opened up by these new local cat laws will only encourage vigilantes who hate cats to have an ‘open season’ on cats in their neighborhood. The Cat Haven, a well known Perth based cat rescue group have already reported incidences of cats caught in traps being drowned in lakes. A horrible death for any animal with no chance of escape and astonishingly still a set of laws introduced in such poor format by local councils that policing these laws is almost impossible.
Very little forethought went into the ultimate outcomes that these laws would fester, if councils honestly thought that residents of their shire would act responsibly under these new laws they have already been witness to the folly of their naivety. With cats being drowned in traps and my own experience of having my cat Simon being trapped by a neighbor in my own street and taken to the pound with no consultation with the shire. I managed to rescue my cat Simon on Day 6, it was clearly a lucky day for him will your cat be so lucky?
Parts of these laws have validation with responsible cat ownership including limiting the number of cats per household, sterilizing cats, micro-chipping or identifying your cat with a collar & identification tag and keeping your cat indoors from the hours of 9pm to 6 am is also very doable.
What these laws fail to take into consideration is the intrinsic nature of cats and the impossibility of cat owners to always control some of their inherit behaviors which have allowed cats to survive well prior to their domestication.
Cats are highly independent creatures who value their freedom, they have instinctual drives to patrol their territory and to chase off any intruders entering their territory. Cats have very strong maternal instincts and are predatory in nature and mark their territory with their scent to keep any other animals out of their area. Cats rely on these instincts to get through life and expecting them to change these behaviors is literally asking them to stop being a cat.
Cats cannot be trained like the dog species and forcing cat owners to achieve the impossible by preventing their cats from occasionally wandering into a neighbors yard is simply ludicrous! The harsh penalty of trapping cats, impounding them and having your cat euthanized as a result is a sickening and heart breaking reality now for cat owners and their families. That this type of action is being implemented by your local shire and your neighbors is just disgusting.
You can protest against these new local cat laws by visiting www.aussiecats.com and having your say.
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* Cat wanders into police parking lot, is euthanized (seattletimes.nwsource.com)Cat ownership in WA is under siege by local cat laws newly introduced by the Shire of... more
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Animal adoption is less expensive and more humane than municipal euthanasia programs, said an Austin lawyer and “No Kill” advocate visiting Baton Rougeans trying to sustain a “No Kill” initiative.
“I started like a lot of people start in the animal welfare world,” said Ryan Clinton, 34, who grew up in Baton Rouge. “Stumbling on a stray dog or cat or two or three or four in the neighborhood.”
Municipal animal shelters think “No Kill” too expensive, Clinton said, but “the budget of a shelter has shown to be unrelated to whether a shelter becomes ‘No Kill.’”
“There’s a long tradition that says spay/neuter is the only answer,” Clinton said. “The shelters say they do hard work all the time. But it’s spay/neuter, adopt out a few, kill the rest. It’s been that way a hundred years.”
Nonprofits and individuals pick up the tab for adoptions and spay/neuter in Austin, Clinton said.
“We have a good rapport with Hilton Cole (head of Baton Rouge’s Animal Control and Rescue Center),” said Patricia Calfee, a Baton Rouge Area Foundation project manager, who has worked with animal welfare people here on a “No Kill” initiative.
Figures provided to Calfee by Cole show 8,222 animals (3,855 cats and 4,367 dogs) put down by the East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control and Rescue Center in 2009.
Cole is on medical leave, said Richard Byrd, operations manager at the center, but a figure in the neighborhood of 8,000 sounds right.
About 80 percent of the stray cats and dogs brought to the center each year are killed, Byrd said.
“But that’s changing drastically,” Byrd said. Adoption, foster homes, spaying or neutering saved 550 dogs and 152 cats through October 2009, he said.
The kill rate in Charlottesville, Va., is less than 10 percent.
“We could do that in Austin,” said Clinton, who with his girlfriend has provided a foster home for 14 animals.
Charlottesville has 2,000 foster homes.
Clinton estimated that Austin would euthanize 6,000 to 9,000 dogs and cats this year, but thinks just a few years ago it was as high as 14,000.
“Thirty-five percent of animals impounded in Austin die, and it was higher in past years,” he said.
A 10 percent kill rate is achievable, he said. A certain percentage of animals that end up at a municipal animal control center can’t be saved, Clinton said.
Clinton founded http://www. FixAustin.org, a “no kill” advocacy group.
He’s a volunteer foster “parent” and legal counsel with Austin Pets Alive.
Yelp BR is modeled after Austin Pets Alive, said BRAF”s Calfee.
To contribute to the “no kill” initiative, send contributions to Baton Rouge Area Foundation, The ‘No-Kill Baton Rouge Fund, 402 N. Fourth St., Baton Rouge, LA 70802.
Clinton’s research shows 40 million Americans looking for pets this year. “With only five or six million animals going into shelters,” he said, there’s no reason millions of animals can’t be saved.
“The loss of an animal means opportunity for adoption,” he said. “Adopt a pet as opposed to buying from a breeder or a pet store or convincing a friend to let his animal have a litter.”
Clinton, who’s with the Dallas-based law firm Hankinson Levinger, is the son of Ralene Cerise and Jim Clinton.Animal adoption is less expensive and more humane than municipal euthanasia programs,... more
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http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/02/07/article/euthanasia_rates_rise_as_animal_shelters_struggle
Pet Overpopulation and its many tentacles reaches into our homes, neighborhoods, shelters, rescues, local and national governments. And until it touches our collective heart and consciousness, it will continue spreading its insidious disease: Euthanasia.
We respond to this disease with denial, much like any other terminal illness. To protest its existence doesn't dissolve it. To look the other way doesn't halt its progression. Our only hope is to become aware of its dangers, yield to knowledge that will slow its advance, and actively fight it as we would any pestilence.
Having our pets altered is a solid, effective defense against overpopulation in that it places fewer and fewer offspring in kill-shelters. Spayed, Neutered, Altered, Sterilized, Castrated, Fixed, all refer to surgical intervention (female ovariohysterectomy; male orchiectomy) that prevents animals from reproducing.
Another contributing factor to pet overpopulation is that guardians are surrendering their pets to shelters for a variety of reasons. The "We'll try it and if it doesn't work out ... " mentality when bringing a pet into a home is placing that animal at risk. Much more commitment is required, and it BEGINS with considering the appropriate pet for the family.
The 'throw-away' society we've become seems at odds with giving much-needed thought to buying the right breed or selecting the right shelter pet. Due consideration must be given to the pet's size, breed temperament, grooming, obedience classes, vet visits and expenses. Not preparing for these can result in dysfunctional pet guardianship patterns that ultimately lead to surrendering pets to shelters or outright abandonment.
To the desired end that Pet Overpopulation and Euthanasia will soon be past issues, the following information is of interest:
1. Over $2 billion is spent annually by local governments to shelter and ultimately destroy 8-10 million adoptable dogs and cats due of shortage of homes. Source: Business Wire Features
2. Less than 3% of dog guardians are responsible for surplus births. Source: Save Our Strays
3. The main reason for cat overpopulation is feral, free-roaming, unowned cats. Source: Save Our Strays
4. An estimated 6 to 8 million dogs and cats are euthanized in shelters each year. Millions more are abandoned, only to suffer from illness or injury before dying. Source: Doris Day Animal League
5. The perceived high cost of altering is not the problem, but the lack of education, i.e., its benefits.
6. While prices vary considerably, many humane societies and municipal animal control departments offer low-cost spay/neuter services. And while the cost of surgery may seem high initially, it's a real bargain when compared with the cost of raising a litter of puppies or kittens. Spaying and neutering also saves taxpayer dollars. On average, it costs approximately $100 to capture, house, feed and eventually kill a homeless animal - a cost that ultimately comes out of all our pockets. Source: Doris Day Animal League
7. The cost of having a pregnant female can be much higher than cost of spaying.
8. Seven dogs and cats are born every day for each person born in the US. Of those, only 1 in 5 puppies and kittens stay in their original home for his/her natural lifetime. The remaining 4 are abandoned to the streets or end up at a shelter. Source: The Humane Society of the United States
9. Each day 10,000 humans are born in the U.S. - and each day 70,000 puppies and kittens are born. As long as these birth rates exist, there will never be enough homes for all the animals. Source: Spay USA
10. Early age altering of pets (6-14 weeks) has been practiced for over 25 years in North America.
11. Neutering the male before he is sexually mature will inhibit such 'territorial' linked behaviors like urine-mhttp://www.news-record.com/content/2009/02/07/article/euthanasia_rates_rise_as_animal_s... more
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Do not support breeders. RESCUE a beautiful animal who will otherwise be euthanized. Your animal companion will thank you by giving you tons of love for the rest of your lives together.Do not support breeders. RESCUE a beautiful animal who will otherwise be euthanized.... more
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