Your voice helped make a difference!
by Kris Neal, Best Friends Focus on Felines Advocate
Update from Kris, June 18, 2009:
Thank you all for the letters you sent to the Mayor and Council. They paid off for St. George feral cats.
The Council members' in-boxes have been jammed packed with letters the past few day. Suzanne Allen mentioned that it was a very successful campaign which inspired the council to take another look at how money can be put towards Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR).
$3,200 was put into the 2009-2010 budget for the feral cat TNR program. The city is hoping we can save them that amount by keeping ferals out of the shelter. We can fix more than 100 cats for that amount, which down the line prevents thousands of cats from entering our shelter. Hopefully the council will be pleased and continue the funding.
This pro-active move on the part of our city, is a very important step towards no-kill.
The original request:
The past two years, myself, Best Friends and No More Homeless Pets in Utah have approached the St. George city council, asking them to partner with us in a Trap/Neuter/Release (or return) program to give people an option: from trapping and killing the large numbers of free roaming cats in the community to the more effective and humane method of TNR. We call them community cats which encompasses both friendly and feral outdoor cats and the best way to get their numbers down and keep the community free from unwanted litters of kittens is TNR.
We are asking for the money that it takes to kill a feral cat and use it for TNR. The cost that goes into responding to a nuisance call, to renting the trap, to transporting the cat, to euthanizing the cat, and then disposing of the body and sterilizing the trap could go into the more safe, humane and effective program of TNR! We feel we can fix a cat for this money, giving people an alternative to trap and kill.
(To read about the TNR presentation to the St. George city council, please click here.)
Even though we are not asking for new money, we'd like the council to keep this proposal on the table. The budget will be voted on in the regular city council meeting today, June 18 and we'd like them to keep this proposal on the table
How You Can Help, Now!
Please take just a minute and email the Mayor and city council members and share your experience with TNR, how TNR has decreased the population by humanely stopping the breeding cycle and letting the cats live their lives. They need to know how we've successfully and humanly cut down the number of free-roaming cats in our communities, where we would be without TNR. With a little financial help, we can go further! Even if you have not been a part of a TNR program, please lend your support to the program – if you love cats or not, TNR is the most effective way to handle their overpopulation!
Please click on the below email addresses to speak for the cats that need your voice!
Mayor Daniel McArthur mcarthur@infowest.com
Suzanne Allen suzanne.allen@sgcity.org
Gail Bunker gbunker@dixie.edu
Jon Pike jon.pike@sgcity.org
Gil Almquiest gil.almquist@sgcity.org
Gloria Shakespeare gloria.shakespeare@sgcity.org
For more contact information, please click here!
image by Clay Myers, Best Friends photographer
posted by Denise LeBeau, Best Friends staff