Working to Solve the Feline Crisis in Shelters
No More Homeless Pets Conference addresses lifesaving measures for cats.
By Jennifer Hayes, Best Friends staffDuring the No More Homeless Pets Conference, attendees heard that only 2% of the cats admitted to shelters are returned to their guardians and 70% of the animals killed in shelters are cats. So it is imperative that in order to reduce the 4-5 million animals euthanized in shelters every year, steps must be taken in insure that more cats leave shelters alive; by strays being returned to their families and through adoption to new homes.
“My focus and my passion is on reuniting lost pets with their families,” stated Kat Albrecht, Founder of
Missing Pet Partnership. She trains people on how to find lost pets, preferably before they get to a shelter.
Albrecht noted that stray means roaming, not necessarily homeless, yet the animal welfare community mainly focuses on adoptions and spay/neuter, while little effort is made to return lost animals back to their original homes.
“Other than owner surrender dogs and feral cats, every other animal in your local animal shelter is already part of someone’s family. Think about it, they already have a home, so why are we trying to find them a new forever home? Shouldn’t we work to reunite lost pets with their families?”
When a cat is in an unfamiliar area, they become displaced. This can refer to indoor cats who find themselves outdoors or outdoor cats who are away from their familiar territory. At that point, she noted that the temperament of the cat will determine how the animal will typically behave if lost. “There are predictable patterns of behavior” and that “a panicked, displaced cat, will hide in silence.”
Ironically, many cats will remain close to the escape point, often in a neighbor’s yard, and the use of a baited humane trap can help recover him or her within one to two weeks.
In fact, according to a study done in Ohio, 66% of lost cats were found within their own neighborhood, as opposed to only 2% who were taken to a shelter.
“There’s just so many things that we can be doing to give people hope and encouraging them,” Albrecht commented. She went on to say, “They need proper tips and ideas and information, and hands-on assistance would be helpful as well.”
While her Missing Pet Partnership is developing a nationwide network of people trained in recovery of lost pets, she recommends that shelters or rescue groups provide lost pet services. This would include highly visible fluorescent signs to be held or placed on major roadways near the location a dog was lost or found. Physical neighborhood searches are necessary for cats, as well as supplying humane traps for use in their recapture. She also recommends shelter cross-checks, where volunteers search through lost dog or cat databases when an animal is brought in.
“The concept and dream that Missing Pet Partnership has is that we want to partner with rescues groups and shelters that want to launch pet rescue teams.”
On the flip side, once a cat is brought to a shelter, it is vital to provide a proper environment.
During her presentation, Sue Cosby, Executive Director for the
Animal Welfare Association, said “You can do a better job no matter what your situation.”
Though her current facility could be considered ideal, with 1,080 cat adoptions and 700 fostered animals in 2007, with the implementation of the “Comfort, Care and Safety” program she developed at a high-volume shelter in Philadelphia, in 2008 they have already adopted 2,007 cats and placed almost 1,300 animals in foster care, proving that even model shelters can still experience improvement.
“I wanted the staff to learn how to think about what that cat is feeling at that moment.” Access to clean food, water and litter at all times as well as immediate vaccinations, medical care, and ongoing health monitoring may seem obvious to animal advocates, but not necessarily so for shelter employees.
Because many shelters euthanize cats for illness, it is important to keep shelter cats healthy, which can be accomplished by both reducing stress and not exposing cats to disease. Simple concepts such as separation of cats from dog areas and utilization of
Feliway® spray significantly reduced their stress.
She noted that cats like to relax on cushions, lie on perches or take comfort in hiding spots. So she took that those basic concepts and applied them to a shelter environment. While she promoted open housing, in some situations that is not feasible, and the cats must be kept in individual cages.
It is particularly important to reduce the stress of cats when moving them. Cosby recommended spot cleaning of cages, as opposed to transferring the cats out of the cage and into a carrier.
She emphasized the placement of
Aces small mammal dens in all cat cages, not only as a spot to hide or perch, but also as a way to easily transport the cat in an enclosure that he or she feels comfortable in. It also serves to reduce the exposure to staff and surfaces that may be harboring viruses.
Most cats arrive at the shelter healthy; however, Cosby noted “The number one cause of disease in the shelter is you.” It is staff touching multiple cats without proper sanitary procedures that often causes the transmission of illness. She got staff to understand this by photographing a stuffed cat as it was processed from intake through all aspects of shelter life, so they could see all instances that led to both stress and exposure to disease.
Cosby tells her staff “I would really much rather spend money on buying gloves that you change between each animal than on antibiotics, or worse yet, euthanasia solution. I want the cats to stay healthy.”
And healthy cats that are not stressed are more likely to be adopted, instead of become a euthanasia statistic.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
1. Volunteer to initiate a program to reunite lost pets with their guardians at your local shelter or rescue.
2. Donate items that help reduce stress such as
Feliway® and
Aces dens to your local shelter.
3.
Petfinder and the
Petco Foundation will be making
Hide, Perch and Go boxes available at a low price within the next month, which may be purchased to be given to shelters.
4. Continue to check out the
NMHP Conference community for more articles highlighting innovative programs that were presented during the Conference.
For more information:
•
Missing Pet Partnership•
Animal Welfare Association•
How to Find Your Lost PetClick here to check out the highlights from the 2008 No More Homeless Pets Conference! Photo credit: taken by Jennifer Hayes