Paws of PA

PAWS In the News - Saving your tax dollars and cats too!

Whether or not you like animals - cats in particular, I have a pretty good idea that your money is important to you, especially your tax dollars and how it is spent. In 2009, Steelton Borough's contract with the local shelter cost the Borough $26,000 - with 80% of those costs - approximately $17,098 toward borough drop-offs to the shelter of 126 cats out of 158 animals - or $135.70 per cat. Since 2010, no cats have been taken to the Humane Society, saving the Borough and her residents approximately $8,000. Spay and neuter costs for Steelton's Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program being absorbed by PAWS costs about $60 to $70 per cat - and costs can be reduced via donation.

You can do this in your own community - I would urge you to contact your local government and ask if they have a contract with the local shelter and to provide contract details - including costs and how many animals have been relinquished to the shelter over a several year period.

For these programs to continue, we need community involvement. There is more than one avenue to assist. Please read more about the Steelton Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) project here.

Did you know that 2 out of 3 households feed stray cats in the United States? Did you also know that, based on a survey, most people believe it's more humane to let a stray cat live out his life outdoors than to euthanize him, even if they knew the cat would die a traumatic death in two years?

Obviously, Americans are a very compassionate people. With that being said, why aren't more shelters and our local and county governments doing what its people want? Feral cats entering shelters do not face the prospect of adoption, in fact, their fate is rather grim. This is with the exception of shelters that do not accept feral cats - the one and only shelter in our area is the Humane League of Lancaster County - and we applaud them for being the progressive shelter in the greater Harrisburg/Lancaster areas. For information on cats in shelters, the article below explains further.

The Fate of a Feral Cat in a Shelter

It is still hard for me to fathom that we live in a world where a shelter would accept a terrified feral mother cat who is still nursing, separate her from her newborn kittens and just kill her simply because she has not been taught to 'like' humans, but that is something that the world still struggles with. And yet, we have exterminators out there who will 'relocate' honey bees and vermin rather than kill them, and PETA, who won't kill insects but believes in killing feral cats. I'm just not sure why cats are so low on the list in our society.

Jen Klinepeter
PAWS Volunteer and TNR advocate

Feral cats do not belong in shelters. Due to their very nature - their fear of people make them unadoptable. The end result for any feral cat brought to a shelter is unequivocal - death.Shelters may call it "euthanasia" - but look up the definition. Euthanasia is set aside for those animals who are terminally ill and suffering - feral cats do not fall into this category. Let's call it what it is - killing the cats. And the cats are not killed for space as many friendly adult cats are, instead, it is because of their very nature.

While some people in a community may not necessarily condone the death of the cats, they mistakenly believe that the cats can be taken "somewhere else". A caring individual may come upon a mother cat and her kittens and bring them to a shelter for "safety". Please read Got Stray Cats or Kittens? Manageable Solutions for information on when to "rescue" kittens and when not to.

Sometimes a shelter will even go far as accepting a feral mother cat who is still nursing her kittens - the mother will be killed and the kittens fostered and bottlefed until old enough to be adopted. Some shelters will also kill the kittens if they are not yet old enough to be eating solid food. Read stories of cats and kittens who were taken to shelters by individuals who thought they were helping the cats here. Read about friendly shelter practices here.

You do have the power to change things - read the success story of how a small group of residents of Steelton in Dauphin County saved and still are saving the lives of cats and kittens - and saving tax dollars too! The opposite side of this coin is Palmyra, whose Borough Council recently enacted an animal control law and Highspire Borough who is interested in trapping ferals - it is still not too late to let your voice be heard. Citizens do have power - much more so than any rescue does - especially at the local level. Use your voting power to write your local elected officials and tell them you want them to support humane management of outdoor cats via Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) and for shelters to not accept free roaming cats - including any eartipped cat - into their system.

Contracts with shelters cost municipalities - and YOU - a lot of money - estimated between $135 to $200 per cat. While spay/neuter costs approximately $60 to $70 per cat. Contracts with shelters are endless as are the growing costs - the crux of the issue - spay/neuter - is not addressed. While Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is by definition, addressing the spay/neuter issue.

To read more about relocation - why we do not recommend it except in the extremest of cases, visit: www.indyferal.org

If all other resources have been exhausted and relocation seems to be the only option, please see the following link for safe relocation guidelines:

http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=334&srcid=221

Further reading:
Steelton Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) Project
Cat Fatalities and Secrecy in U.S. Shelters, Alley Cat Allies
Palmyra adopts animal-control law, Lebanon Daily News
Highspire to begin trapping, borough flyer

If you need additional advice, please contact us! Email feralcat@pawsofpa.org with any questions and/or suggestions for News from PAWS.

Please donate - together we will forge a better tomorrow for the animals - and ourselves.

Kathy C. Smith, President
717.957.8122

PAWS | PO Box 855 | Camp Hill | PA | 17001

Username:
Password: