{"id":640,"date":"2018-07-20T14:34:24","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T21:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=70432"},"modified":"2018-07-20T14:34:24","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T21:34:24","slug":"acs-and-stray-cat-alliance-directors-to-present-workshop-at-best-friends-national-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/pets\/acs-and-stray-cat-alliance-directors-to-present-workshop-at-best-friends-national-conference","title":{"rendered":"ACS and Stray Cat Alliance directors to present workshop at Best Friends National Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, July 20, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.longbeach.gov\/acs\">Long Beach Animal Care Services<\/a> Manager Ted Stevens and <a href=\"https:\/\/straycatalliance.org\/\">Stray Cat Alliance<\/a> Founder and Director Christi Metropole teamed up to present \u201cCommon Sense for Cats: Creating Transformative Partnerships for Shelters and Communities\u201d at <a href=\"https:\/\/bestfriends.org\/events\/best-friends-national-conference\/\">Best Friends National Conference<\/a> at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. Best Friends is a nationwide nonprofit organization whose mission is to \u201csave them all\u201d\u2014cats, dogs, rabbits\u2014no matter how seemingly hopeless the condition or how great the numbers in the shelters.<\/p>\n<p>ACS and SCA have a longtime partnership in the shelter\u2019s Community Cats Program. The strategy lays out solutions for the community at large to understand what a community cat is\u2014the familiar term is <em>feral<\/em>, but not all roaming cats are wild, and whether they\u2019re wild, stray or abandoned, the situation originated with people and can be mitigated with people\u2019s effort. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.longbeach.gov\/acs\/wildlife\/community-cats\/\">Community Cats page<\/a> on the shelter\u2019s website has suggestions for effectively shooing the cats from the property for unwanted behaviors such as digging in the yard and yowling. More importantly, especially for the sake of the cats, there\u2019s information about TNR, or trap\/neuter (and spay)\/ release, and how to conduct it. TNR is a humane way to keep cats from creating more generations of unwanted critters and to allow them to live out their lives.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_70433\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70433\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-70433 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/anna-dashing-off-with-the-cat.-Courtesy-of-SCA-450x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-70433\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mama no more: Recently spayed female cat takes no time finding home following her release by SCA volunteer. Photo courtesy of SCA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe are at a point in history where it is no longer acceptable to kill healthy and treatable cats, and we can accept no less,\u201d Metropole said.<\/p>\n<p>The workshop introduced the partnership between SCA and the shelter, and will describe the program along with its results and challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I first came to the shelter, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foundanimals.org\/\">Found Animals<\/a> (a privately funded nonprofit that actively creates solutions to animal issues) wanted to start a program like this one,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cI was open and willing to try something new.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stevens said that TNR in particular has led to reduced cat impounds at the shelter, and the program in general has forged partnerships with more rescues that pull shelter cats for adoption. Despite the positive impact, he advised, there is still a heap of challenges in the form of sick and injured felines and people turning in unweaned kittens that they mistakenly believe are orphaned. Community involvement is essential for further success in Long Beach and everywhere else.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want people to know that this type of life-saving program is possible and doable for any type of shelter, large or small,\u201d Metropole said. \u201cAll you need is the willingness and a little chutzpah, and the rest will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The full schedule for the conference is available <a href=\"https:\/\/bestfriends.org\/events\/best-friends-national-conference\/schedule\">here<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ACS and SCA have a longtime partnership in the shelter\u2019s Community Cats Program. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":66162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[204],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pets","tag-pets","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=640"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}