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Wildlife Biologist Creates “Campus Cats” Program at University of Georgia

March 19, 2009, 3:19PM MT

By Cheri Moon

TNR working on campuses across the nation

TNR working on campuses across the nation

By Stephanie Rommel, Best Friends Network Volunteer

Kelly A. Bettinger is a strong and often outspoken advocate for the proven technique of TNR (trap, neuter, return) as the best humane answer to the overpopulation of feral cats.

This may not seem unusual, except Bettinger is a Certified Wildlife Biologist and is employed as the Collections Manager of the University of Georgia Herbarium. With more than 14 years of experience, her work focuses on avian research, bird community surveying and monitoring.

And, Bettinger loves cats too!

Cat Zip Alliance
She is one of three cofounders of Cat Zip Alliance (CZA), a nonprofit umbrella organization for Campus Cats, Kitty Crusaders and The Barn Cat Program.

Campus Cats helps feral cats on the University campus through its TNR program and Bettinger is its program coordinator. Students adopt or bring cats and kittens to the campus, and when they leave, some abandon them causing a cat overpopulation issue, a dilemma shared by many college campuses across the country.

Kitty Crusaders provides advice and information to people who want to humanely help a particular cat or colony of cats in Athens-Clarke County. The Barn Cat Program keeps a working list of farms, horse stables or other safe outdoor shelters. The barn owners volunteer to accept and care for two or three young sterilized cats that need homes.

One Kitten Started It All
For Bettinger, it began in 2006 with an innocuous email concerning a kitten left at the main library. Of course, she put food out, the mama cat and kittens showed up, she trapped the little group, and it all snowballed from there.

She recalls one muggy July evening lying flat on her stomach for nearly an hour halfway in a concrete sewer-opening near a sidewalk at the student center…mosquitoes and ants biting, sweat dripping down her nose…trying to coax a five-week-old kitten closer. Bettinger already had the mom cat in a trap next to her, hoping the kitten would see the mom and come near so she could grab him.

Suddenly, Bettinger says, the sidewalk filled with a well-dressed crowd leaving a lecture. “At first, most gave me a wide berth, not really looking at me, until one brave person asked what I was doing. After I told her, she placed a $20 bill next to me and wished me luck.”

A few minutes later, she collected the kitten, pulled herself out of the sewer and found about $50 in bills scattered around her (the sewer kitten is now grown and living with a UGA graduate in Tennessee).

Now Campus Cats is sustained by yearly fundraising efforts. Bettinger explains that there is "so much to do to help the enormous population of ferals." She adds, “I just had to put boundaries on this—so all I am willing to oversee is Campus Cats. Otherwise, I would be totally overwhelmed.”

Declining Number of Cats Means Success

They adopted out 56 cats and kittens in 2007; 45 in 2008. In 2009 they have adopted out four. Declining numbers mean success!

The UGA Campus Cats is following in the footsteps of similar university community cat programs, according to Bettinger. Stanford University has the oldest such program in the United States with its Stanford Cat Network. Begun in 1989, the cat population was 1,500. Today approximately 200 cats live on campus.

The Campus Cat Coalition at the University of Texas-Austin has seen great results with its 13-year-old TNRM (trap, neuter, return, manage) program. No new litters of kittens have been born there in the past eight years.

Texas A&M University began its AFCAT (Aggie Feral Cat Alliance of Texas) program in 1998. Their program has become a beneficial educational tool for Texas A&M veterinarian and wildlife sciences students.

Putting on her biologist hat, Bettinger believes "managing feral cats through TNR is the best way to reduce impacts on wildlife. I consider my position a realistic one that takes into account public opinion and economics. The opposition just wants them rounded up and killed using tax payer dollars."

In a study conducted by Alley Cat Allies, more than 80% of Americans surveyed voted to let feral cats live instead of trap and kill. The economics behind trap and kill is simply not there, Bettinger feels. Women won’t hold bake sale fundraisers to pay for killing cats. TNR is the only choice.

At the University of Georgia two-thirds of the Athens campus is now under control through the commitment of Bettinger’s Campus Cats. Her goal is to reach the point where no kittens are born, and all that is necessary is to care for and maintain the remaining feral cat population.

How You Can Help:

• To find out more about all the programs within Cat Zip Alliance visit www.catzip.org and learn how you can help or form a campus cat program.

• Caring For Feral Cats, a simple guide to caring for feral cats in your neighborhood: why trap/neuter/return works; how to obtain low-cost surgeries; the trapping and release process; and ongoing care.

• Hiding in Plain Sight, this article from the May/June 2008 issue of Best Friends magazine provides an overview of trap/neuter/return (TNR) as a means for humanely controlling feral cat populations. A sidebar addresses the issue of feral cats and birds.

• Join the Feral Cat Campaign on the Best Friends Network.

Photo of Kelly Bettinger by Pete Bettinger
Photo of feral by Stephanie Rommel
Stock main photo by Clay Myers, Best Friends Staff

Posted by Cheri Moon, Best Friends Staff

Comments

Posted March 24, 2009, 10:40AM by simka

Here at the University of Washington, we have Friends of Campus Cats which Sharon created about 20 years ago:

http://campuscats.org/

I'm going to send her the link to this story because I know she has received some very unpleasant correspondence from local bird watching groups in the past.

Posted March 24, 2009, 10:25AM by pamelab

Campus Cats needs to go nationwide. Period.
Why not get started today! It would not be hard to find animal groups already on campuses and plenty of animal-loving students to get on the bandwagon.

This program has legs--and it can morph into a movement with legs!

Go Campus Cats!

Posted March 23, 2009, 4:1PM by Kelly4cats

Trap and kill is used as "complaint control". It's not something done by enough people or done thoroughly enough to make any real impact on reducing the numbers of homeless cats. Most times it's not even a solution for the trapper since other cats will move into the area. TNR is a well thought out, economical, longterm and also very importantly nonlethal solution at reducing the numbers of cats. Kelly is right when she said you aren't going to get a group of people to fundraise for trap and kill. Can you picture a bunch of Girl Scouts selling cookies to help raise money to euthanize cats and kittens? The majority of people won't support kill policies when they realize there are better and humane options out there.

Here is another successful TNR program on the Stanford University campus.

http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=mqzl4vw65czsht0m7vl68cwmkghz5bpt

City officials should be encouraging community volunteerism and doing something good instead of having their shelter rent out traps which also kills owned cats. We get emails and calls every week from people who want to fix the cats. What we need is to have the financial and political support for TNR so we can speed up the success of these TNR programs. No feeding ordinances and the like, just make criminals out of citizens who are going to be needed to help trap and fix the cats. Communities need to be educated better about TNR and start demanding these TNR programs get the needed funding. Having these endless debates about the cats vs. birds and so on solves nothing. Get out there and start fixing the cats!

Posted March 28, 2009, 10:2AM by pamelab

And they now have Campus Cats in Beirut, Lebanon! Check out this story on Animals Lebanon:

https://www.animalslebanon.org:443/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=8

Posted March 20, 2009, 5:44PM by georgebailey47

Any good biologist will tell you that TNR works. And, she just did!
:)

Just going by mere common sense, TNR obviously is the only way: Spaying/neutering prevents more cats, and the cats already there get to live.

It's a no brainer.