Veterinarians are key to reducing feral cat populations, says Alley Cat Rescue
Mt. Rainier, MD (PRWEB) April 23, 2015 -- So far over 800 veterinary clinics from 45 states have joined ACR in the fight to prevent cat homelessness. Together, more than 9,000 community cats have been spayed or neutered! And thanks to compassionate vets in South Africa and Canada, FCSD has become an international campaign. Anyone interested in helping community cats is invited to join us on this very important day.
TNR is the humane management of community cats, where cats are caught in humane traps, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, ear-tipped, and returned to the site. Friendly kittens and cats who can be socialized are placed into adoption programs to find homes (an immediate reduction in outdoor cat populations), while those who are truly wild are returned to their outdoor homes. A feral cat is simply a domestic cat who was born outside and has never lived with humans, or a lost or abandoned cat who’s gone without human contact. Cats easily revert back to living on instincts and become less dependent on humans for survival. Feral simply means “wild” or “untamed.”
Alley Cat Rescue President, Louise Holton, is once again encouraging the veterinary community to participate on this important day by offering at least two free or low-cost surgeries for feral cats. In hard economic times, countless people naively think a cat can “fend for herself,” so they put her on the streets or drop her off in the country. Holton says, “The key to our success in reducing feral cat populations lies within the veterinary community. TNR stops the breeding cycle more efficiently than catch-and-kill. In catch-and-kill, other strays will enter the vacated territory and start breeding all over again.”
Cat rescue organizations cannot tackle this problem alone; they need the support of the veterinary community. By establishing long-term relationships between vets and rescuers, together we can help each town’s stray cat population. ACR wants to make it clear, this day is not only meant to help reduce feral cat numbers and assist colony caretakers, but to also help the veterinary community showcase its compassion for animals.
For more information on Feral Cat Spay Day and how you can get involved, please visit http://www.saveacat.org.
About Alley Cat Rescue: ACR is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the welfare of all cats: domestic, stray, abandoned, and feral. We run a no-kill shelter and advocate TNR programs for feral cats. ACR has been awarded the Independent Charities of Americas “Best in America” Seal of Approval, and our newsletter has won several awards from the Cat Writers’ Association. For more information, please visit our website http://www.saveacat.org.
Denise Hilton, Alley Cat Rescue, http://www.saveacat.org, +1 301-277-5595, [email protected]
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