The Los Angeles government has recently been in the process of re-evaluating their use of TNR on community cats due to opposition from bird advocacy groups. The groups falsely state that TNR is ineffective but LA city shelters show that TNR is decreasing the percentage of cats that are euthanized. The opposition groups want the community cats to simply be killed. Not only is this approach inhumane, but it will lead to more community cats entering the area, not less. The fight to protect community cats reached an important development when a local judge ruled that the City of Los Angeles is suspended from supporting and promoting TNR pending an Environmental Impact Report. Public comments are currently being accepted. Unfortunately, the opposition groups are resourceful and powerful. That is why we need you to comment in support of TNR. If you do not live in LA tell all your friends and family in LA to submit a comment. Comments are due by October 30, 2017 and can be sent to Dr. Jan Green Rebstock at [email protected] (make sure to mention “Cat Program” in the subject line) or by mail to: Dr. Jan Green Rebstock City of Los Angeles, Public Works Bureau of Engineering, EMG 1149 S. Broadway, 6th Floor, MS 939 Los Angeles, CA 90015 If you need help developing a public comment feel free to look at our website for information on TNR and community cats or reach out to our organization directly.
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In Boston, Mass, in 1984, Annabell, who was working on Martha’s Vineyard with PAWS, an organization she had founded a decade earlier, had attended a conference of the World Society for the Protection of Animals and heard Peter Neville from the U.K. who studied feral cats for many years, speak about the success of TNR in Britain. Later in 1985, while vacationing at her house on the Virgin Gorda islands, she discovered several colonies of cats. For the next decade she took Tufts veterinary students to conduct TNR on the island. In the July 1990 issue of Cat Fancy, another great friend and TNR advocate, author Ellen Perry Berkeley wrote the article Feral Cats, highlighting a few ground-breaking programs tackling the feral cat issue including Annabell’s dedicated work. I immediately reached out to both women, as I had been working on a feral cat colony in Adams Morgan, Washington D.C. and had discovered the bias and animosity towards feral cats by the animal movement at that time. Annabell called me right away after receiving my letter, and her and her husband, Stanley drove down to Maryland to meet me. Annabell was ecstatic that I was thinking of starting the first national organization to promote and advocate TNR, Alley Cat Allies. In 1997 I founded Alley Cat Rescue, having left Alley Cat Allies, and Annabell and I continued our friendship and she helped financially to start ACR. Over the years we often spoke together on panel discussions on TNR and developed an amazing friendship and bond. She called me at least twice a month over the years, and we had a lot of laughs about our work and the initial reaction to TNR by major groups. One CEO of a national animal group, when he heard Annabell was doing TNR said to her: “oh so you have become a cat hoarder”. I shared with her how I had been called many things on my rounds to debate TNR with folks from major animal organizations saying I was “dumping” cats, and my TNR was illegal, and calling me all kinds of names as well. We both held on to our firm belief that what we were doing was ethically right and moral, and that they would all learn this in the future. Which in fact become true as one by one over the years, they changed their minds and started advocating for TNR. She shared funny stories of her and Stanley leaving to vacation on Martha’s Vineyard and the battle they had rounding up her dozen cats, many feral, in their apartment in New York City to go with them to the Island. I recently visited her in New York City after she had suffered a stroke, and she had had a bad day and did not really remember me. But we chatted and I had breakfast with her. Then in 2015 a miracle happened. My phone rang and I saw it was A’Bell’s phone number. At first I was afraid to answer the phone expecting the worst. But I picked up and it was the old Annabell calling me! She had just received a copy of my Handbook I had written, and she was calling to congratulate me on the book and saying how much she enjoyed it! We chatted a long time. But a week later when I called her again, she was back to struggling with her memory and said: “Well if you say you are a friend, you must be a cat person!” Rest in peace Dear Friend. One person told her once when they talked about growing old: “Annabell God is probably a big black cat!” Hawaii’s House and Senate are hearing bills that put community cats at risk and violate citizens’ privacy. House Bills 606 and 454 and Senate Bill 637 allow the state to enter private properties and eradicate who they deem pests, which includes community cats, in non-humane ways. Unfortunately, the next step for bill 606 is for Gov. David Ige to sign or veto the legislation. We urge our supporters to contact Gov. Ige at 808-586-0034 and tell him you vehemently oppose any legislation that discourages humane treatment of America’s favorite animal. The Department of Agriculture or the county will give the resident five days notice “to enter the property for the control or eradication of a pest,” according to the bill, whether the resident likes it or not. Invading people's’ homes and properties would fail to get to the root of overpopulation. Cat populations can be managed with Trap-Neuter-Return, as proved by an Alley Cat Rescue Survey that found more than 50 percent of feeders cared for colonies less than 20 with the help of TNR in 2016. Before TNR was as prevalent, in 2012, only 35 percent of feeders cared for colonies less than 20. Officials who eradicate feral cats don’t consider that once they eliminate a colony, another will take its place. If there are still cats who aren’t spayed and neutered, they will simply replace an eradicated colony with its own population. It’s an endless, fruitless cycle that harms human and cat lives. But Hawaii has considered TNR as well. House Bill 191 would establish feral cat overpopulation programs in high schools, which includes TNR, the most effective and humane way to reduce feral cat populations. House Bill 122 similarly supports TNR and would allot government money toward TNR. Though bills 191 and 122 aren’t close to reaching the governor’s desk, they properly address community cat populations, and Hawaii’s House should further consider them. Perhaps Hawaii’s government should listen to their own Invasive Species Council when it suggests to spay and neuter cats to help manage the population, rather than inhumanely eradicate community cats. To act, mail Gov. Ige at: Office of the Governor The Honorable David Y. Ige Governor, State of Hawaii Executive Chambers State Capitol Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Even the most ornery cats can learn to like another kitty if they’re introduced the right way. Alley Cat Rescue’s Program Manager Niki Cochran knows for sure, because it’s easy for anyone to love her cat Lucy, whose tongue permanently hangs out on the left side from a dog attack before Cochran adopted her. Meg, Cochran’s sometimes crabby older cat, found a way to appreciate Lucy because Cochran introduced them the right way. That means giving the newer cat a small space to adjust and a door in between the two to sniff one another through the crack. It takes patience to introduce cats, and with a little bit of time they will grow to accept one another rather than become lifelong enemies. “[Cats] may act crabby at first, but as long as they’re not charging or attacking -- that’s OK,” Cochran said. The first way to introduce a new cat like Lucy to an older cat, like Meg, would be to place the newer cat into a small room, such as a bathroom or a guest room. It is important to keep them isolated from one another for a couple of days to a week, said ACR’s Director of Operations Denise Hilton. To acclimate the cats to one another, you can switch each of their cat beds so they grow used to one another’s scents, Hilton said. You can also place the cat food on both sides of the door so the cats eat near one another, Cochran added. After some time has passed, it’s safe to switch the door out for a doggy gate so the cats can see each other face to face, and you can gauge how they react. Hilton added it might be good to get a few gates, as “obviously cats can jump a lot higher than dogs.” Once you feel enough time has passed to introduce the cats, make sure to never do so without supervision. They should not be left unsupervised when you’re not home, Hilton said. “All cats are different. Some might get along immediately, some it might take quite some time,” Hilton said. In addition to supervised introductions, cats may start to get along if you use interactive toys such as cat dancers that not only help with the cat’s prey drive, but also keeps cats focused on the object rather than one another. If all of these steps are followed, even grumpy cats such as Meg may start to get along with newcomers like Lucy. “Every once in awhile they do this weird play thing that involves hissing -- but it’s playing,” Cochran said. Though not all cats become best friends, or take up to a month to get along, avoiding aggression is key. Because if you do not take these steps, there’s the chance that the cats may never get along, and even attack one another. Introducing cats to dogs is a whole other situation, however, and you can read about that in our next blog. Volunteers as young as 11-years-old helped Alley Cat Rescue locate and Trap-Neuter-Return 42 cats in Roanoke last week. Olivia, 11-years-old, was one of more than 20 people in Roanoke who Alley Cat Rescue trained to TNR cats in partnership with the Mountain View Humane animal hospital and Barn Cat Buddies, a sanctuary for feral or skittish cats, to help manage colonies there. TNR is the most effective and humane way to treat feral cats and manage their colonies, according to Alley Cat Rescue’s Guide to Managing Community Cats. “We had two volunteers come with us trapping ... they had never done it before,” said Niki Cochran, program manager at Alley Cat Rescue. She added ACR staff taught them TNR techniques, and that “they’re going to be part of the feral cat community for the rest of their lives.” The workshop’s goal was to teach community cat advocates in Roanoke how to conduct TNR sustainably, said Alley Cat Rescue’s director Denise Hilton. Several residents at the trailer park, located in a heavily wooded area, were eager to hear the community cats would be returned control rodent and snake populations, Hilton added. On the workshop’s first day, Hilton presented on how to humanely capture community cats with traps lined with newspaper and baited with wet food -- “the smellier, the better,” Hilton said. Alley Cat Rescue taught the community cat advocates trapping techniques they wouldn’t have learned otherwise, such as how to establish a feeding schedule to better lure the kitties into traps when they’re most hungry, Hilton said. Roasted or fried chicken -- such as KFC -- also work to entice community cats, she added. “[The volunteers were] so excited … that we were able to give them more knowledge to help them along,” Hilton said. “They don’t work for an organization, they’re individuals -- they are out of the kindness of their hearts concerned for the cats in their neighborhood.” On the second day, our staff ventured out with community cat advocates, including 11-year-old Olivia and the two volunteers who never trapped before, to humanely capture kitties who lived around a trailer park. On the third day, Mountain View Humane spayed and neutered those cats. Cochran said the workshop was successful because Mountain View Humane was similarly motivated how a shelter would be to promote TNR. “The head vet [at Mountain View] was definitely instrumental in making sure they had these more progressive policies [concerning TNR],” Cochran said. To make TNR sustainable in Roanoke, Alley Cat Rescue gave Barn Buddies a grant to conduct 200 free spays and neuters, and gave Mountain View Humane a grant to conduct 100 free spays and neuters. These grants are in addition to the 42 TNR's completed with Alley Cat Rescue. Our rescue also plans to give another grant to Mountain View Humane for spays and neuters. This workshop was part of Alley Cat Rescue's new Alliance for Cat Protection program. The program helps build a network of support for shelters throughout the United States. Alley Cat Rescue provides these Alliance shelters with comprehensive training in humane programs for community cats, including public workshops and staff training that save animals' lives. Our dedicated team visits these communities to educate and provide hands-on support with TNR, just as they did in Roanoke.
You can help ACR provide more shelters with help by donating to ACR and earmark your donation ----ACR----Training and Education. Threats to the livelihood of community cats come in many forms and we at Alley Cat Rescue work hard to combat those threats every day. One of the latest threats comes in the form of this pseudo junk science piece that has unfairly set community cats up as a scapegoat for numerous environmental concerns. We are working diligently to dispel these myths by informing Journalists, Public Leaders, and the community at large about this issue. If you encounter anyone who has been misled by this hysteria please point them to our website where they can read about the benefits that community cats provide to the environment and the success of TNR programs over lethal methods of animal control.
www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-new-book-called-cat-wars-calls-for-killing-all_us_57c4b1d1e4b0c936aaba8a63 Today more individuals are sharing their homes with companion animals than ever before, with cats being the number one pet in American homes. The bond between humans and animals is strengthening, and the public no longer finds it morally acceptable to use lethal management practices to control animal populations. In particular, the tradition of mass killing feral cats through catch-and-kill, is being replaced by a new model, Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), that is more humane, more effective, and less costly. As evident in Alley Cat Rescue’s 2016 Feral Cat Survey, more animal control agencies and local governments are supporting TNR efforts for managing outdoor cats in their communities, while rescue organizations are improving the lives of outdoor cats by providing sterilization services and vaccinations.
In 2016, 77% of rescue groups reported that their local animal control agency approves of TNR for feral cats, that’s a 40% increase from the number of groups that said animal control approves of TNR as reported on the 2012 Feral Cat Survey. In comparing the the two surveys, there’s also a 16% increase in the number of rescue groups reporting their working relationship with animal control agencies as being “easy” or “intermediate,” which leads us to believe there is a significant shift toward accepting TNR in the animal control field. There has been similar progress with the relationships between feral cat groups and local governments. In comparing the results from 2012 to 2016, there has been a 22% decrease in feral cat rescues finding it “difficult” to work with local policymakers. However, despite these reformed relationships, most local county-run shelters and animal control agencies do not provide TNR services to their communities, with 62% of respondents saying their local animal control does not currently offer programs to assist feral cats. Other significant findings from the survey reveal that the majority of rescues are comprised of a small handful of core staff with a larger support system of volunteers and foster families. Most of these rescues are managing multiple colonies, with 57% caring for 1-5 colonies and 21% caring for 6-10 colonies. The average size of these colonies tends to consist of around 5-10 cats, with 37% of groups caring for colonies of 11-20 cats. When comparing the results from ACR’s 2012 Survey, there has been a significant decrease in the average size of the colonies these rescues are caring for, which coincides with the reported decrease in the number of kittens present before TNR and the number born in these colonies after TNR has been implemented. Rescue organizations are also improving the lives of feral cats by not only eliminating the health concerns that accompany constant reproduction, but by offering protection against diseases such as rabies, distemper, and leukemia. Ninety-three percent of respondents inoculate feral cats against rabies and only a small portion of cats test positive for either feline leukemia or feline immunodeficiency virus. In addition, these rescues are assisting a large number of senior cats, with 94% of respondents saying they care for cats who are 6 years and older. Rescue groups are also providing spay and neuter services to owned cats, with 74% responding that they sterilize pet cats as well as feral cats. Animal control agencies and local governments, along with the American public, are supporting TNR programs because they effectively reduce the number of cats living outdoors and they are humane. Over 1.4 million cats enter U.S shelters each year, with 7 in 10 being killed. A large portion of the cats who are destroyed in our shelter system are adult feral cats and kittens born to unsterilized free-roaming cats. Local policymakers are realizing these rescues are providing a vital public service which results in reduced pressure on local shelter resources and decreased euthanasia rates. It's encouraging to see the continued enhancement of relationships between feral cat groups, animal control, and local policy makers, however, more improvement is still needed in making affordable spay an neuter and Trap-Neuter-Return services available to the Public. How will emergency personnel know to find and help your cat if a fire happens while you’re away? According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), each year half-a-million pets are affected by home fires, and pets and wildlife accidentally start upwards of 1,000 fires in the home. In recognition of National Pet Fire Safety Day, here are some tips help keep your cat(s) safe from fire.
PREVENTION
IN CASE OF FIRE
And always remember, the number one rule of home fire safety is to make sure you’ve got working smoke detectors, and are testing them every month. Let’s say it’s summertime and your cat is due for vaccine booster shots, so you make an appointment with your vet. It might be a short drive, but if you stop to run an errand on the way and don’t park in the shade, you could be putting your cat at risk. Cats who have an increased risk of heat stroke:
Cats deal with excessive heat in a manner similar to dogs; they sweat a small amount from their foot pads, and also disperse heat through panting. In most cases this is adequate, but in situations of extreme or fast-rising temperatures, it may not be enough to prevent heat exhaustion or heat stroke. A heat-stressed cat may begin to pant rapidly, and her paws may become sweaty or clammy. She may move around anxiously, searching for a cooler spot. Prolonged heat stress can lead to heat exhaustion, and eventually heat stroke, which can cause serious organ damage or failure. Symptoms of heat exhaustion:
Of course, the best way to avoid heat exhaustion and stroke is to make sure your cat doesn’t experience extreme and prolonged environmental heat. However, if your cat shows any of the above symptoms and is or has been in a hot environment, there are a few things you should do immediately: Move the cat to a cool environment
If you find your cat in distress but conscious, the above steps may be enough to bring her body temperature back to normal, but you should contact a vet anyway for further instructions. Cats should be closely monitored for symptoms or unusual behavior in the days after a heat-related event, as the effects of over-heating may take some time to become apparent. If you find your cat unconscious in a hot place, the steps above might be helpful in the immediate moments, but she’ll need emergency treatment by a professional as soon as possible. Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) in warm weather
The warmer months of the year are popular trapping times for people doing TNR projects and for colony caretakers. If you’re out trapping during hot weather, be mindful of the places where cats in traps might encounter extreme temperatures. If you’re transporting a number of trapped cats to a clinic, be sure the vehicle’s interior stays at a comfortable temperature and do not leave trapped cats in a vehicle unattended. If you have a number of cats at a holding site waiting for transport, make sure the cats are in a shady place, out of direct sunlight. And be aware that paved surfaces can get very hot, so it’s best to minimize the time a cat spends in a trap on exposed pavement. A good rule of thumb is if an environment feels uncomfortably warm for a person, it will be uncomfortably warm for a cat. Even sunrooms and garages, spaces in the home we may assume are safe, can become unbearable on hot days if not properly ventilated. And do not underestimate just how quickly the temperature inside of a car can rise when under direct sunlight. An increase of 20 degrees or more can happen in a matter of minutes! Sources: http://www.pethealthnetwork.com/cat-health/cat-diseases-conditions-a-z/can-cats-get-heat-stroke/page/0/1 http://www.petmd.com/cat/emergency/common-emergencies/e_ct_heat_stroke http://www.cat-world.com.au/heat-stroke-in-cats https://www.avma.org/public/PetCare/Pages/Estimated-Vehicle-Interior-Air-Temperature-v.-Elapsed-Time.aspx |
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