Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Release Deployment
Taylor County, FL (December 18, 2018): Last week, RedRover partnered with Operation Catnip, Hearts for Hometown Dogs and Perry Animal Hospital to help reduce the cat overpopulation in Taylor County.
Local partners identified areas with high numbers of community cats, and over four days RedRover Responders helped to carefully capture 144 cats. The team from Operation Catnip transformed Perry Animal Hospital into a high-quality, high-volume clinic for a day where a team of doctors and support staff provided spay-neuter and treatment for the felines. They were then released back into the community where they were originally found.
Beth Gammie, RedRover Director of Field Services, said, “There is a way to humanely solve the problem of a growing number of cats at an outdoor site that cannot support such a population. When agencies and interested parties work together to understand motivations, compromises can be made to take care of the needs of all involved – government agencies, cat lovers, people concerned about wildlife, and the cats themselves.”
Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Release efforts (TNVR) are part of the RedRover Responders program. For 31 years, RedRover Responders has cared for thousands of animals during more than 190 crises that overwhelm communities throughout the United States and Canada. These crises include wildfires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, puppy mill seizures, cruelty and neglect and overpopulation cases.
Last year, RedRover published a comprehensive manual titled Humanely Managing Cat Overpopulation Sites, written by Field Services Director Beth Gammie. This guidebook can assist those trying to solve cat overpopulation areas by bringing all affected parties together to make a realistic plan to spay/neuter all the cats, and rehome as many cats as possible. This manual is a step-by-step guide that walks through a cooperative solution on how to sterilize all cats onsite, place as many as possible in homes or barn homes, then return the unadoptable cats to the site. If 80 – 90 percent of the cats onsite are sterilized, the population will effectively reduce to zero over time due to attrition.
To download the Humanely Managing Cat Overpopulation Sites manual, visit:
redrover.org/cat-overpopulation-manual.
About RedRover
Since 1987, RedRover has focused on bringing animals out of crisis and strengthening the human-animal bond between through emergency sheltering, disaster relief services, financial assistance and education. For the fourth consecutive year, RedRover has earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator. To learn how RedRover is building a more compassionate future, visit RedRover.org.
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Contact:
Sheri Madsen
916.429.2457 ext. 310
916.600.8157 cell
smadsen@redrover.org