Merrilee was surrendered to us from a neighbor of a former caretaker who had been admitted to a dementia facility. The woman had brought her in from the outside, apparently. Merrilee had spent the last two years with this woman who, seeing the extreme fear that Merrilee experienced at any noise or commotion, had to be well into the disease. Turns out Merrilee had not been spayed – adding to her stress. On 8/4, she had a dental from a very painful canine and was spayed. She is doing much better, has a long way to go behaviorally, but is appreciating her new life – treats for outgoing behavior are a good thing! One friendly female done at GEAH.
- On 8/5, 3 ferals and 7 friendlies went to ADOPT, composed of 5 females, 5 males.
- On 8/11, DCAS neutered 13 ferals and 3 friendlies, 9 females, 7 males. There are many conditions that we do not know about prior to surgery, one very feral male had a severely inflamed bladder and was euthanized in the days following surgery when it was decided that he was too feral to treat – catheterizing & treating a feral is just not possible.
- On 8/12, we sent 1 feral and 11 friendlies to ADOPT, 7 females, 5 males. The one feral was a late arrival the previous day.
- On 8/18, 13 ferals and 2 friendlies, 6 female, 9 male went to DCAS. One feral male had a severe eye injury and was euthanized.
- On 8/19, 7 ferals and 1 friendly went to ADOPT. The feral female passed upon receiving sedation, there are so many unknowns regarding the feral’s health.
Counting the cats that did have surgery, this brings the August total to 60 so far, year-to-date to 416 and since our start, 13,630! Will we reach 14,000 by the end of the year?!
Rethinking the Animal Shelter's Role in Free-Roaming Cat Management
While this article is long and wordy, this section stood out: “In addition to shifting the age structure toward younger animals, greater environmental harm and risk may also result from a paradoxical increase in overall population size in response to removal. For instance, researchers evaluated the impact of removing up to 30% of cats from target areas (50). This study was intentionally designed to replicate what could be realistically achieved in open cat populations vs. the highly localized contexts in which successful eradication has been documented. Contrary to expectation that substantial removal would decrease population size, the number of cats present in the culling sites increased by 75% to over 200%. The authors speculated that this resulted from immigration of new individuals in response to removal of the most dominant adults. When culling was discontinued, cat numbers fell and stabilized at pre-culling levels. This led the authors to conclude: “This study provides evidence that ad hoc culling of feral cats may be not only ineffective but has the potential to increase the impact of feral cats in open populations.” This is an important and striking finding. Although in this case the cats were culled, removal to shelters also results in decreased density at the source and similarly takes place in open populations in which new immigration cannot be prevented. This suggests that the practice of ad hoc admission to shelters may not only be ineffective but may actually increase harm to the wild populations it has aimed to protect.”
Opinions are changing in Animal Control
“The limitations and potential harms of untargeted shelter-removal have led to a growing number of recommendations against this practice as reflected in the 2021 position statement from the National Animal Care and Control Association.
“It is the position of NACA that indiscriminate pick up or admission of healthy, free-roaming cats, regardless of temperament, for any purpose other than TNR/SNR, fails to serve commonly held goals of community animal management and protection programs and, as such, is a misuse of time and public funds and should be avoided.”
Updates & Info
Adoption Event: Our second adoption event of the month is this Saturday, 8/27 at the building, from 11 to 3. Please fill out an adoption application in advance if you would like to be considered! Please share with friends and family. We have many more cats and kittens that are not posted on Petfinder as of yet, they can go pretty fast. Check out some of our older cats – due to the changes we are all facing, some previously adopted have come back to us and some older cats from the outside have decided that life inside is just perfect for them now!
Amazon Smile & in-kind donations: Items from our Wish lists show up as a welcomed surprise – thank you to everyone who keeps an eye on what we need! Our recent quarterly Amazon Smile donation from 1/1/22 to 3/31/22 was for $535 – our donors designated Feral Fixer to receive .5% of their purchases, spending $107,000! Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts!
Facebook Fundraisers – Facebook has moved the location of their fundraisers. They used to be front and center on the main page, now you have to hunt for them. Disappointing. But we greatly appreciate everyone who has continued to support Feral Fixers in this fashion! Many people are impulse donors and we would like that to be as easy as possible for them!!!
“As If They Were Our Own” Fundraiser – We do so much in addition to spay/neuter. We really do fill that gap for the outside cats that have no other resources. Of course, we take in soooo many kittens, but we also help the injured. Recently, we have: Fries – a female kitten picked up at a Portillo’s with a front paw crush injury who will be having an amputation next week. Foxy Boy – male kitten scooped up from a busy roadway with Upper Respiratory. Chessie, a male kitten who had not one but TWO bots. Mescal – scheduled for surgery to correct a persistent right aortic arch – PRAA – the right aortic arch fails to regress normally - Regina, a female orange tabby kitten who came in with Upper Respiratory, scheduled for endoscopy to find cause of blockage in sinuses. And the list goes on. We do consider each cat an individual and do our best to NOT go overboard in our care and consider the long-term ramifications of our medical treatments. We are grateful to the donors who enable us to find the best answer for these cats that have no one else to turn to! This year’s “As If They Were Our Own” starts soon!
Mescal (black kitten) with mom & siblings in May. PRAA discovered when started eating solid food. |
Parking Lot – We’ve been looking forward to this! And all done in two days’ time! No more potholes, new ramp to move stuff into the building (no dealing with a curb any longer), it’s beautiful! Thank you to everyone who donated to our Fund for the Future, making this possible!
Compliments to our donors – When people see our building for the first time, they are impressed, and we could not do this without our donors. Best compliment recently – “And it doesn’t smell!” Not easy to accomplish when we have cats on hand, moving in and out of the building, etc. And, yes, then a cat pooped!
"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."
- Mae West
Below are 10 pictures of our parking lot. The first 5 were taken while the work was in progress while the last 5 show the finished product.
(Click on any of the picture thumbnails to see a full-size version)