Amnesty for Millions and Millions of Community Cats
Part II
Paradigm Shift
by Malcolm Riordan
As shown in last month's Best Friends (Amnesty for Millions and Millions of Community Cats), cat population control in the USA has — with exceptions — failed to meet its goals. Important too is that those goals have been based on myth and unsubstantiated assumptions.
New conclusions and policies have been shaping up and are beginning to be implemented at shelters across the nation. What are these paradigm shift changes and how do they look in action? They include . . .
-Shelters should only take in adoptable cats in numbers that the shelter's area can realistically adopt out. No cats need to be put to sleep simply because they are feral, stray or otherwise not owned, i.e. community cats.
-Shelters would continue euthanizing cats that are sick, suffering or have become a significant nuisance to human society. Continue euthanasia policy for cats that are a threat to their own cat community – for example any cat found to be Feline Leukemia Virus positive.
— Shelters should abandon any non-strategic, unfocused or wholesale trap, neuter and release (TNR) programs that are aimed at wide, undefined areas at, say a county level – such programs in the USA are amazingly ineffective – the average 3% contact rate of such broadly aimed programs aren't meeting any goal.
— Animal control/shelter should only put efforts and funding into TNR programs specifically aimed at defined areas as programs like this are very effective and highly successful. Examples: targeting a certain residential area, college campus, or a particular zip-code area besieged – to a problem level — with community cats.
— Shelters and animal control agencies should initiate or increase efforts at public education — especially in areas being evaluated as potential TNR program targets due to complaints from the public. Educating and providing information to a group — or even an individual who has a complaint — often is all that is needed to meet nuisance complaint mitigation.
In areas across our nation where shelters and animal control have begun this game-changing approach to community cats, the public has embraced the concepts and programs quickly without complaints.
The public almost intuitively and universally gets it — let's leave community cats alone. Mostly these cat communities are successful on their own and are enjoying a happy existence. We can handle individual nuisance cats via either educating the concerned public about non-lethal solutions, and when it is the best option to resort to individual cat euthanasia. Where a certain cat community is causing problems we can launch TNR programs as appropriate.
This then is the face of amnesty for millions and millions of North America's community cats.
All sources for last month's Best Friends as well as this page derive from the efforts and inspiration of two veterinarians who are devoting their careers to shelter medicine:
Dr. Julie Levy DVM, University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and Maddie's Fund Shelter Medicine Program Director
Kate Hurley DVM, University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and Koret Shelter Medicine Program Director and
Shelter Medicine.com
"A paradigm shift in how we handle community cats" video presentation by Dr. Julie Levy
All photos are from the flickr site: Catspotting [Outdoor cat pix only]
Come out to Woods Humane Society or click on the logo and take a look through some of the 100+ adoptable dogs and cats waiting for you to 'graduate' them into a new life.
This month's photos from Funny Dogsite
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1001 Front Street,
Morro Bay
Proceeds for book sales
fund scholarships.
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Woods Rafter Cat Image on Banner by Malcolm Riordan.
All content copyright Slo Coast Journal and Malcolm Riordan. Do not use without express written permission.
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