

Six Ways to Live Harmoniously with Community Cats X
My concern is about the growing population of feral and free-roaming cats in our community. Killing cats is not the answer! It’s inhumane and does not solve the dilemma because more irresponsible people will continue to compound the problem as long as cats exist. The situation will not go away, but it can be controlled. It has been said that our community does not have a cat problem, but we at P.U.P.S. know it does, just by the number of cats that our small group has been


Do Feral Cats Transmit Disease? X
Very often when approaching the subject of Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate –Return (TNVR) for community cats with people opposing the practice, the first subject they will address is ‘disease.’ This is most often quickly followed with the word ‘rabies’ which strikes a fearful cord in most of us. The conversation usually leads to other diseases such as Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV), Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), Toxoplasmosis and Cat-Scratch


How TNVR Reduces Shelter Kill Rates X
No other animal entering an animal shelter faces such a grim and certain future as feral cats. Because of their unsocial disposition, feral cats are not considered adoption candidates. So, when a feral cat enters a shelter, it is almost always an immediate death sentence. The only alternative to these mass killings done in US animals shelters is trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR), also known as trap-neuter-return (TNR). For our purposes, we will refer to this as TNVR. How


Where Has Our Humanity Gone? X
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, humanity is defined as the quality or state of being kind to other people or to animals. When you see a cat on the street, obviously homeless, do you turn your back and pass as if you see nothing at all, or do you reach out to this cat with compassion and concern? There are so many everyday people who reach out and do something to change the life of such a cat. They give of themselves by providing their time and money to see that


Education Makes the Difference x
Is this where you would want to see your child, lying on a pile of trash out in the cold cruel world, with nowhere to turn to except the occasional kindness of strangers if they are even that lucky? Every day, thousands of kittens are born in to just this sort of world, a world where most people show them little or no compassion and love, a world ill equipped to help due to its lack of education about their plight. Yet, education on how to remedy this situation is readily av


No Kill Equation X
The treatment of feral cats (homeless) will only change when their status in society is elevated. These cats, many abandoned through no fault of their own, are seemingly not worthy of compassion. Even people claiming to be animal lovers and supporters want this “vermin” gone. The thing that is incomprehensible is how these people can blame the victims (the cats) yet turn their heads blindly away from those who victimized the cats through abandonment and failure to spay and


Shelter Reform (part 1) X
You see a stray cat and it looks hungry and alone. You want to help it but how? You figure your local animal shelter would be the one to call because they help and shelter these poor creatures, right? You are most likely WRONG. Shelters often encounter the situation where there are not enough spaces for all of the homeless companion animals. When a cat enters through these doors and especially if the cat appears untamed, its chances are slim of ever leaving alive. This cat c


Shelter Reform (part 2) X
For the past 100 years, shelters have generally adopted out a few animals and killed the rest because it was widely believed that there weren’t enough homes for all the dogs, cats and other animals. However in 2000, reformers came up with ways to save every healthy or treatable animal who enters a shelter and determined that there are enough homes for all the animals. The means of ending the killing is called the No-Kill Equation, and it involves making low cost spaying and


Non-Native Species X
Nativism is the idea that native species (birds, wildlife) have more value than non-native ones (cats). This means that one animal should be valued more because they were here first. All animals have been introduced at one point. Does it really matter how and when they appeared? They still deserve to live. It is wrong to believe one species should be killed because it interferes with another that was here first. All are worthy of compassion no matter how or when they app


Do Feral Cats Decimate Songbirds and Wildlife? X
Community Cats and Birds Bird lovers have claimed for years that cats, specifically feral or community cats, are to blame for killing too many of our birds. Even the Audubon Society is finally beginning to understand that cats are probably least of the overall bird population problems. In a study published by the Audubon Society, climate change is predicted to “severely” affect approximately half of our North American bird populations drastically. The global warming caused