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Life Improving for Community Cats in So. Utah

October 18, 2008, 8:18PM MT
By Denise A LeBeau
Caregivers celebrate Feral Cat Day with Best Friends

Caregivers celebrate Feral Cat Day with Best Friends

by Celeste Crimi, Best Friends Animal Society

The situation for feral cats in 35 Utah & Arizona towns has improved drastically, thanks to privately owned veterinary clinics working in conjunction with neighborhood volunteers and Best Friends Animal Society,

Last year alone, 1,235 outdoor, untamed cats were spayed or neutered through the Best Friends Animal Society’s Feral Cat Program. Cats were either transported to the Best Friends sanctuary clinic or brought by volunteers and residents to their participating local clinics (whom Best Friends later reimbursed). The goal for next year is to help 1,500 needy kitties!

In honor of October 17 being National Feral Cat Day, Best Friends hosted a Feral Cat Caregiver appreciation brunch and award ceremony. The feral cat spay/neuter program manager Shelly Kotter explains, “We wanted to treat the volunteers who work so hard caring for these cats and to let them know how much we appreciate all their hard work.”

Let’s meet a few of these caregivers who are helping to spread "Spay Neuter Fever" for homeless cats:



Bitsy McClain has been doing good work for animals for 6 years in Cedar City, Utah. She works with a team of 5 core volunteers to assist abandoned & neglected animals out of their homes. Her organization, Cedar Animal Rescue, is a no kill nonprofit serving dogs, cats & even farm animals! Somehow, she finds time to help those with feral cat questions, like the caller yesterday who stated, “I know that this little mama’s pregnant again…”

Bitsy mentors community residents to humanely live trap any cats living outdoors (she keeps 10 traps on hand to lend out). She makes appointments for the cats to be brought to a nearby participating clinic for spay/neuter. Post-surgery, she educates the newfound caregivers on when and how to return the cats to their outdoor life. With Best Friends funding, she’s facilitated spay/neuter for several hundred cats so far.



Only about 500 people live in the rural, no-frills town of Circleville, Utah. According to Karen Karback of Paiute Paws, animals in need far outnumber the humans! When Karen moved to Circleville a few years ago, she was struck by the number of unfixed animals wandering the streets. Soon thereafter she met Diane Young, Best Friends’ feral cat trap-neuter-return (TNR) mentor. When Karen learned that 75% of the animals euthanized in Utah are feral cats, she knew where to set her life-saving focus. Now, Karen traps up to 10 cats a day & transports them to Dr. Kelsey, Circleville’s local veterinarian, for spay/neuter. After they’ve recovered from their surgery, she returns them to their outdoor homes. Karen explains how Best Friends providing both payment to Dr. Kelsey and free food for the caregivers allows the cats to remain cared for and alive, “If the local residents can feed them & they’re fixed, they don’t mind having the cats on their property.” With 65 cats on her waiting list, Karen has her good work cut out for her!



Susan Barrett has helped over 1,000 feral kitties from her home in Hurricane, Utah. Like Karen and Bitsy, she works with a small core of volunteers, local vets, Best Friends & community members to practice and advocate for TNR.

Susan spoke at the brunch today, and her moving words summed up the hearts and minds of so many feral cat caregivers everywhere:

“Trapping is not an easy thing to do. You go out in the cold, the rain & the dark to round up these cats. But, you do it because you care deeply about these poor, helpless kitties who haven’t chosen this life for themselves. And you do it because it relieves immeasurable pain and suffering they would otherwise suffer. You do it because it’s the right thing to do.

If we don’t fight their battle and speak up for them…then who will? And the best thing is, things are getting better every day. Every kitty we trap is one more huge step forward to eliminating their hardship We are making the ferals’ lives better one spay or neuter at a time..


How You Can Get Involved
If you live in the Southern Utah area and there are feral cats in your community that you would like to help, please contact Shelly Kotter at (435) 689-1221 or email her at shellyk@bestfriends.org

Your donations make this program possible, click here to show your support.

Not in the area but still want to help? Check out the following resources:
Best Friends Resource Library
Best Friends Special Guest’s Archives
Alley Cat Allies
Neighborhood Cats
Project Bay Cat (tool kit for humane feral cat population control)

images by Molly Wald, Best Friends photographer
Comments
Posted October 20, 2008, 4:34PM by BarbaraWilliamson
talk about people who understand unconditional love. these cats often run away as you come with the food, but they do appreciate it. Thank you for your selfless care of these homeless cats.

and just to be a pain...I really don't think you can say categorically that these are untamed cats. There's usually also cats that were housecats once upon a time bu they are frightened and have gone into survival mode.

In every "feral" colony I've ever been around there are also the cats who were abandoned, kicked out of the house, left behind when people moved, got lost, were unaltered and went looking for love in all the wrong places....

And given the chance to come back indoors, they often can come back around.

My old Grandpa Sam, I sure thought was a bonafide feral. He lived with me for 3 years, 18 months outside, 18 months inside and I never could get closeer than 3-foot distance but he sure appreciated soft beds and heat ...and then the last 2 nights of his life he crawled up on the bed and positioned himself where I could pet him. That's when I knew he had been somebody's baby once upon a time.
Posted October 20, 2008, 8:53PM by QMD333
I agree Barbara. We have personally rescued two "feral cats", who were once so afraid of humans that they ran at the mere sight of one. Now, both of them enjoy curling up in our laps, and sleeping next to us, and rubbing up against us, etc

Moral of the story: NOBODY IS DISPOSABLE. If given a chance ANYONE and EVERYONE can be helped. The Vick dogs are another example of this.

Cowards like PETA, kill shelters, etc are just too uncaring to put in the sweat and tears, and the time it takes to help others, because they are businessmen/women looking for money, not compassionate men/women looking to touch a precious life.
Posted October 19, 2008, 11:41AM by marys
Wow! These three ladies are awesome shining examples to all of us. Thanks so much for saving so many lives and educating the public! You are appreciated and admired!!
Posted October 21, 2008, 12:58PM by celeste
I agree...whatever words we use, such as "feral" "untamed" "stray" "community cat" "wild" "outdoor kitty"...there'll all just another way to say, "I love you and you deserve to live. Your life has intrinsic value."
Posted October 22, 2008, 8:20AM by mytwocats
wow!!!It seems to me that there's alot of work in utah!!!I'll be getting my diploma for vet assisant school soon and i'm starting my vet-tech course soon,i hope!!!Is there anyway of talking to these girls on-line???lori
Posted October 20, 2008, 2:26AM by QMD333
Thank you to everyone who is doing such a great job saving such precious souls!

You are an inspiration!
Posted October 22, 2008, 7:4PM by madison1981
barbara, I have had true ferals that have sought out affection from me in their last days. As you know, these cats need us in every way a tamed cat does. Even if they don't come near you when you're feeding them they truly are grateful for everything you do for them. Most may be too afraid to come up and show it but they are saying THANK YOU for your kindness and love in their own way.
Just a few words about PETA, I couldn't disagree more with their views about feral cats, but I think that will change once TNR is more widely used and accepted. But I have to give much credit to them for doing things other groups will not do. They go into the animal labs and report the terrible abuses that go on there. They see the dogs, cats, monkeys, rabbits, that are caged and have been experimented on. They see the loneliness, pain and fear in their eyes. They go to China and risk their lives trying to expose the horrific dog and cat meat/fur trade there. They take photos of the 6 month old puppies being kept in crates behind restaurants that will be butchered. They secretly go into ranches where chickens are put into machines alive and ground up, exposing these atrocities. They see things that would probably make us lose our minds and yet they keep fighting for these defenseless animals. Please try to keep in mind all the good things they do.

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