On Friday, July 20, Long Beach Animal Care Services Manager Ted Stevens and Stray Cat Alliance Founder and Director Christi Metropole teamed up to present “Common Sense for Cats: Creating Transformative Partnerships for Shelters and Communities” at Best Friends National Conference at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. Best Friends is a nationwide nonprofit organization whose mission is to “save them all”—cats, dogs, rabbits—no matter how seemingly hopeless the condition or how great the numbers in the shelters.
ACS and SCA have a longtime partnership in the shelter’s Community Cats Program. The strategy lays out solutions for the community at large to understand what a community cat is—the familiar term is feral, but not all roaming cats are wild, and whether they’re wild, stray or abandoned, the situation originated with people and can be mitigated with people’s effort. The Community Cats page on the shelter’s 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’s 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.
“We are at a point in history where it is no longer acceptable to kill healthy and treatable cats, and we can accept no less,” Metropole said.
The workshop introduced the partnership between SCA and the shelter, and will describe the program along with its results and challenges.
“When I first came to the shelter, Found Animals (a privately funded nonprofit that actively creates solutions to animal issues) wanted to start a program like this one,” Stevens said. “I was open and willing to try something new.”
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.
“We want people to know that this type of life-saving program is possible and doable for any type of shelter, large or small,” Metropole said. “All you need is the willingness and a little chutzpah, and the rest will follow.”
The full schedule for the conference is available here.