HSUS Video about Feral Cat Rescue

I've been way overworked and stressed lately. Haven't been into deep posts at all. So here is a nice story and video about a HSUS rescue of a California feral colony. It makes me want to get back into animal rescue, which is where my animal rights activism started.

Financial Resources for Cat Care

Thanks to Alley Cat Allies, one of my favorite groups, for posting this web page with financial resources for people struggling to care for pets or feral cat colonies.

These guys are just awesome.

Alley Cat Allies Wins Recognition for Financial Efficiency

We've been supporters of Alley Cat Allies for years, ever since we rescued a feral cat colony living in our apartment building's parking lot 14 years ago (5 of those clowns are aging nicely with us with us now...including Charlotte who's on the masthead).

They do excellent work on feral cat issues, but I'm glad to see that they are recognized for their financial efficiency too. They do a good job of using donations for actual programs instead of bloated overhead.

Here's a Charity Spotlight article on them from MainStreet.com.

Yay!

No-Kill Conference Already Sold Out

The National No-Kill Conference scheduled for May 2-3 in Washington, DC is ALREADY sold out.

Amazing.

Quantico Has No Compassion for Feral Cats

Quantico Military Base is really behaving cruelly when it comes to the feral cats on its base. They've prohibited feeding and want the animals trapped. If they are not adoptable, oh well, kill them.

Please. It is NOT the animals' fault that they have been abandoned to miserable lives. (Of course, this is the military, so why should they be any better than humanity in general?)

We do not support or promote feral animals on the base,” flatly stated Bruce Frizzell, head of the Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs office...

Frizzell explained that a large population of feral cats is ultimately detrimental to the overall environmental health of the base, its native species and ecosystems.

‘‘They’re a big impact on wildlife. That’s why I’m concerned,” Frizzell said. ‘‘The raptors feed on these things (mice, rats), snakes feed on these things, it’s in the wild food chain and the cat interrupts that because it’s not part of the natural setting.”

Frizzell has encountered those who trap feral cats with the intent of spaying or neutering them, vaccinating them and then releasing them back into the wild. It is their belief, he said, that rendering most of the feral cats sexually inactive will humanely decrease their numbers.

‘‘The people that are doing this are really kind-hearted,” he said. ‘‘They just think this is the right thing to do and we don’t. We worry about wildlife, disease and nuisance animals.”

Feral cats may be an animal problem, but there is a human solution. While both Frizzell and Ellington maintained that base residents should not provide for or promote feral cats with the understanding that they have a substantially negative impact on base, proper care of one’s own pets will prevent ‘Whiskers’ or ‘Frisky’ from adding to the ranks of destitute ferals.

"Whiskers" or "Frisky?"


Alley Cat Allies is leading the fight to help the ferals.

Helping Feral Cats in Your Neighborhood

Cory Williams, of the famed "Mean Kitty" YouTube videos (which are really funny), has a good how-to video about doing a trap, spay/neuter, and release of feral cats in your neighborhood. The video was done on behalf of the Stray Cat Alliance.

Where Are All the Cats?

Last summer, Alley Cat Allies conducted an analysis of Illinois Department of Agriculture reports collected from the 247 animal pounds and shelters licensed by the state that handled cats in 2006.

Things don't look too good.

More than 60,000 cats were killed in Illinois animal pounds and shelters in 2006. That’s 5,000 cats killed every month, and 160 each day.

On top of that, these same facilities couldn’t account for over 17,000 cats. No one knows what happened to them.

Illinois is one of the few states with laws already requiring pounds and shelters to report the fate of animals in their custody. In the same year that 60,000 cats were killed and 17,000 went missing, the Illinois Department of Agriculture didn’t review the reports. It didn’t even total up those numbers.

And it didn’t penalize or investigate a single facility for failing to account for so many fatalities.

They point out that Illinois is just one state of many others where there is no accountability for where these animals go.

Alley Cat Allies is awesome and we have supported them for years (although not as much as I would like.)

Check out their action center and sign up for e-alerts.

Choosing Between Feral Cats and Coyotes

Here is an interesting story about coyotes feeding on feral cats.

University officials said experts from the California Department of Fish and Game and specialists in animal behavior had advised that "if a predictable source of prey is removed, the coyotes will typically move."

Activists say the cats are scapegoats in this case.

"If they're concerned about the safety of people, get rid of the coyotes," said Bill Dyer, Southern California regional director for In Defense of Animals, a national animal protection group.

Australian Town to Cull Feral Cat Colony

Kill them! Kill them all!

STRATHFIELD Council has decided to put down the colony of feral cats in Homebush's Powell St, despite strong opposition from animal rights activists.

At last Tuesday's meeting, the council voted unanimously in favour of a one-off cull of the stray colony.

A spokesman for Strathfield Council said the cats would be killed by injection.

"For the protection of people and other animals that frequent the area, the feral cats will be caught and euthanased humanely, consistent with section 32 of the Companion Animals Act 1998," the spokesman said.

Photo by The Naked Artisan.

Trap, Neuter and Release

USA Today has a great roundup of efforts to promote Trap, Neuter and Release programs for feral cats.

Feral cats — nearly invisible and often reviled — have prowled into the spotlight.

The free-roamers with an aversion to humans have grabbed headlines this spring because of a bounty on their heads in Iowa, a threatened roundup and disposal in Fairfax County, Va., and other elimination plans across the country.

But the cats also are receiving attention of a different sort.

Grass-roots groups and animal-welfare organizations are directing money and energy toward helping the tens of millions of feral cats that skulk about college campuses, cluster around back-alley trash bins, swarm among the rocks at beach communities and colonize the nether-reaches of suburban parks, military installations and abandoned barns and fields.

Did the Orange Country Sheriff's Dept. Taser a Cat to Death?

I got this link from a Tony at the LA Times LA Unleashed blog about a cat that was allegedly tasered to death by an OC Sheriff's deputy. They are still investigating.

Sheriff’s officials were conducting a necropsy today to determine whether the dead cat was shocked with a Taser, said sheriff’s spokesman John McDonald. An unidentified person told sheriff’s officials that deputies used the Taser on the cat "a couple of weeks ago," McDonald said.

That's a great site if you live in the LA area and want to learn about animal happenings in the area.

Iowa Town Rescinds Stray Cat Bounty

Boy, was this harsh. An Iowa town had a $5 bounty for every collarless cat turned in to a vet.

The City Council approved the bounty after receiving numerous complaints about feral cats. Under the initial policy, which went into effect March 1, stray cats without collars would be taken to a veterinarian, and if they weren't claimed, they'd be euthanized. That caused an uproar among animal lovers.

On Thursday, the city voted to end the bounty and form a task force involving three organizations, Maryland-based Alley Cat Allies, Best Friends Animal Society of Utah and Feline Friendz in Nebraska.

But the Mayor still wants those meddling cats GONE!

Trively still wants the cats gone — and said returning them to town is not a solution.

"How would you like it if a dozen cats come around there every morning as you tried to feed pets and they gobble up food and chased your pets away and then left a calling card on your yard or walk to step on?" he asked.

A calling card? Is he talking about cats?

Photo by crausman.

Alley Cat Allies' Anti-Cruelty Center

I love Alley Cat Allies. We first got involved with animal issues back in 1995 as the result of a feral cat colony in our apartment building's parking lot. We received no support or encouragement from our local nonprofit shelter nor our municipal shelter. Fortunately, we tapped into a group of "underground" cat rescuers who gave us advice and helped with placement (five of those placements are lounging around in the house as I write!)

The one organized group we encountered was Alley Cat Allies and they are still growing. They are a leader in the field of managing feral cat colonies and rescue work.

I see that they now have an anti-cruelty web page and I want to encourage you to check out the group's site and this useful page.

Photo by dawnkua.

Great Feral Cat Organization

We've talked about the Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project before on this site. They are located in the City of Seattle and are an effective, innovative group. They also post information about their clinic model.

Take a look at them. They are leaders in the field and a role model for similar groups.

Photo by WashHumane.

Congratulations to Israeli Animal Group

Congratulations to Beersheba Loves Animals for receiving government support for spay and neuter work. Every effort to help an animal in this world should be applauded.

The Municipality of Beersheba has approved a budget for a street cat spaying and neutering project. Tens of thousands of shekels will be invested in the project in 2008 in three Beersheba neighborhoods.

The project was initiated by a small NGO, Beersheba Loves Animals, made up of students. The association, operating for some four years, is committed to animal welfare in Beersheba and to increasing resident awareness of the subject by means of educational workshops on the prevention of cruelty to animals, promotion of laws and norms on animal welfare and finding foster homes for cats and dogs.

Here's their contact information.

Beersheba Loves Animals
The Association for Animals in Beersheba and Vicinity Mail: Schreiber Family 70/30 Beersheba 84451 Israel

Using Feral Cats to Catch Rats

Voice for Animals has a program to place feral cats in police stations with rodent problems.

The Working Cats program of Voice for the Animals, a Los Angeles-based animal advocacy and rescue group, has placed feral cats in a handful of police stations with rodent problems, just as the group placed cats in the rat-plagued downtown flower district several years ago -- to great effect.

Six feral cats were recently installed as ratters in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Police Department's Southeast Division, and another group will be housed at the Central Division early in the new year.

Their reputation as furtive and successful exterminators grew after feral cats were introduced to the parking lot of the Wilshire Division nearly six years ago. Rats had been burrowing into the equipment bags that bicycle officers stored in outside cages; inside the facility, mice were sometimes scurrying across people's desks.

"Once we got the cats, problem solved," said Cmdr. Kirk Albanese, a captain at the Wilshire station at the time. "I was almost an immediate believer."

Here is a link to Voice for the Animals.