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TNR Success in Jacksonville

May 27, 2009, 12:55PM MT

By Cheri Moon

First Coast No More Homeless Pets opens new high-volume spay-neuter clinic

First Coast No More Homeless Pets opens new high-volume spay-neuter clinic

By Sandy Miller, Best Friends staff writer

Good things happen when animal control agencies and nonprofit animal welfare organizations join together to make life better for animals in their communities.

Just ask Samantha, a cat who managed to wiggle out of her harness at a rest stop on Interstate 95 in Brunswick, Georgia, last spring while on a road trip with her family. Somehow, probably thanks to a lift from a Good Samaritan who found her near the rest stop, Samantha made it 80 miles south to Jacksonville, Florida, where she most likely escaped again. She was picked up by Jacksonville Animal Care and Control and taken to the shelter.

Thanks to a program called Feral Freedom, a program of First Coast No More Homeless Pets, sponsored in part by Best Friends Animal Society, Samantha did not become another euthanasia statistic.

Samantha after she was safely reunited with her family

Family Reunion
Jacksonville Animal Care and Control—who partners in the program with the Jacksonville Humane Society—turned Samantha over to Feral Freedom instead of taking her to the shelter, as it does with all cats it believes might be feral or free-roaming. The cats are spayed or neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and returned to their colonies. In Samantha’s case, the Feral Fix program discovered she had already been spayed and had a microchip. Her microchip was scanned and her family was located—in Summerville, South Carolina. Her family traveled to Jacksonville for a happy reunion with Samantha.

Not only does Samantha’s story teach us a lesson in the importance of microchipping, but it shows how lives can be saved when government agencies and nonprofit organizations work together.

Working Together Saves Lives and Money
“When you work together with public agencies and other nonprofits, the possibilities are just endless in what we can do,” says Rick DuCharme, founder, president and director of First Coast No More Homeless Pets.

Feral Freedom has eliminated the killing of feral cats, now referred to as “community cats,” in Duval County. In the 10 months since its beginning in August 2008, the Feral Fix program has spayed and neutered 3,800 cats, says Cameron Moore, program director for First Coast No More Homeless Pets.

“The Feral Freedom program is groundbreaking,” says Shelly Kotter, campaign specialist for Focus on Felines, one of four Best Friends campaigns aimed at reaching the goal of no more homeless pets. “It’s been a huge success and other cities are now looking at adopting the program.”

New Spay/Neuter Clinic
And with the recent opening of the Joseph A. Strasser Animal Health and Welfare Building—a new 16,000-square-foot facility that includes an 8,000-square-foot spay-neuter clinic—even more cats, and dogs, will be saved from euthanasia by reducing the number of homeless pets.

“We’ve got the space and equipment to do 220 surgeries a day six days a week,” DuCharme says. “That could result in more than 50,000 spay-neuter surgeries a year.”

Shelter Admissions Down by 26 Percent
Even before the new clinic opened, First Coast No More Homeless Pets was averaging some 10,000 low-cost or free spay-neuter surgeries a year. The addition of the new clinic will drive that number up much higher. And it will drive other important numbers much lower. Since 2001 when FCNMHP first began, shelter admission numbers in Duval County have decreased by 26 percent, and euthanasia rates have come down from 22,472 in 2001-2002 to 17,430 in 2007-2008.

Not only is First Coast No More Homeless Pets and its Feral Freedom program saving lives, but these programs are saving taxpayer dollars, which is why other cities are paying close attention to them.

“This (Feral Freedom) is showing cities that they don’t have to pay to euthanize cats,” Kotter says. “It’s a resounding success. People are listening.”

First Coast No More Homeless Pets recently received a $150,000 grant from Maddie’s Fund to provide free spay and neuter surgeries for all cats living in the 32211 zip code, the area that has the highest concentration of cats entering Jacksonville shelters.

Thanks to innovative programs like these, not only will more “community cats” find their way back to their colonies, but more cats like Samantha will find their way home again.

Ribbon Cutting for New Clinic
First Coast No More Homeless Pets will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the recent opening of the Joseph A. Strasser Animal Health and Welfare Building—a new 16,000-square-foot facility that includes an 8,000-square-foot spay-neuter clinic. The public is invited to come join in the celebration and tour the clinic.

May 29
10:00 a.m.
6817 Norwood Ave. in Jacksonville, Florida

To read more about First Coast No More Homeless Pets, go to www.fcnmhp.org.

For More Information
• Focus on Felines is one of four Best Friends campaigns aimed at reaching the goal of No More Homeless Pets. Read more at Focus on Felines.

• Best Friends Animal Society is a sponsor and partner of the First Coast No More Homeless Pets’ Feral Freedom program. Read more about how the successful program is saving lives on the Feral Freedom blog.

Best Friends Food Drive
Best Friends’ Four Directions Community Cat Program needs food donations for 3,500 feral cats in southern Utah and Arizona. To help, please purchase gift cards from national chain stores such as Petco, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Costco, Target, Albertsons and Smith's, designating the program as the recipient.

For more information, call Shelly Kotter at 435-644-2001, ext. 4619, or e-mail her at shellyk@bestfriends.org.

Photos courtesy of the First Coast No More Homeless Pets program
Posted by Cheri Moon, Best Friends staff

Comments

Posted May 27, 2009, 1:33PM by annag

Great story!

Posted May 27, 2009, 3:7PM by Kelly4cats

Someone I know called a shelter that I believe is in the same county where Feral Freedom was taking place and they said they killed 13 cats because they came back to the shelter three times after someone had trapped them. They have a three strikes and you're out rule there. Unfortunately the killing hasn't stopped. I tried to let Shelly Kotter know about it.

Posted May 27, 2009, 5:47PM by GeorgeBailey47

"Good things happen when animal control agencies and nonprofit animal welfare organizations join together to make life better for animals in their communities"

Indeed. It's a shame that many "stuck in the mud" animal control agencies choose to ignore animal welfare groups and stick to the fatally flawed "kill 'em and forget 'em" system, which never works because it is a lethal system.

Posted May 29, 2009, 5:19PM by jmuhj

Way to go, Feral Friends! It gladdens my heart to read of this success. And just think how much more could be done if the mainstream media stopped shoving dogs down the public's throats and instead stopped vilifying and ignoring cats. So many more adoptions would occur! Is anyone interested in changing the very biased media?