DIRECTIONS

1. DIRECTIONS • Compile all critical information (See the Best Friends worksheet/checklist) • Make copies of the Best Friends FAQ document for officials • Delete this slide from your presentation • Personalize this PowerPoint presentation as appropriate • Practice the presentation, keeping in mind any time constraints

2. Community Cats and Trap/Neuter/Return

3. SPEAKER’S NAME • CREDENTIALS • ORGANIZATION AFFILIATION (if applicable) • CONTACT INFORMATION • Phone • Email INSERT A PICTURE OF THE SPEAKER HERE

4. Free-Roaming Cat Dynamics • Ownership status • Owned • Unowned • Lifestyle • Indoor only • Free-roaming outdoor • Free-roaming unowned • Socialization status • Friendly • Unsocialized • Continuum • Move from one lifestyle to another

5. Community/Free-Roaming Cats • Exist in all types of environments • May impact: • Public health • Environment • Cat welfare • 7% to 26% of U.S. households feedcommunity cats* *American Association of Feline Practitioners

6. Traditional Management Methods • Community cats are often unsocial, so they are deemed unadoptable and killed in shelters • Community cats produce the majority of kittens entering shelters • The sheltering system is ill-equipped to handle these unsocialized animals

7. Trap and Kill Ineffective Fails to curtail population growth Costly Leads to compassion fatigue: High employee turnover in shelters Taints public image Publicly unpalatable

8. Philosophical Shift in Animal Control “The cost for picking up and simply euthanizing and disposing of animals is horrendous, in both the philosophical and the economic sense.” —Mark Kumpf, President, National Animal Control Association, 2010

9. Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR)

10. TNR:A Non-Lethal Management Plan • Humanely trapped • Evaluated by a veterinarian • Spayed/neutered • Ear-tipped • Vaccinated • Returned to the habitat where originally trapped

11. Cat Deterrents • Provide non-lethal, proactive strategies • Deter cats away from areas where cats are not wanted (e.g., backyard, garden) Video about cat deterrents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nnOibg6nYc

12. What? You Return Them?

13. Benefits of TNR • Reduces shelter admissions and euthanasia rates • Improves public health • Provides access to grant funding and volunteer participation • Decreases nuisance complaints • Stabilizes and even reduces the number of cats

14. TNR SuccessesJacksonville, Florida: Feral Freedom Jacksonville reported: • Net savings: 2007–2010 • $160,000 • 13,000 lives • Decrease in feline nuisance complaints • 31% decrease in feline shelter admissions • FY06–07: 13,455 • FY09–10: 10,302

15. Jacksonville: Feral Freedom

16. Salt Lake City: Feral Fix • Feral Fix program (launched in 2008) reported: • 2008–2010: SLC improved its save rate by 40.4% Result: Overall cost savings of more than $65,000 • 2008–2010: Utah save rate only improved 4.7% • In 2010, SLC realized a 21.8% decrease in shelter cat intake from 2009 • No increase in feline nuisance complaints

17. Other Examples (as Reported by Some Organizations) • Maricopa County, Arizona: cost per cat • $61 to trap, hold and euthanize • $23 to TNR • Indianapolis, Indiana: cost per cat • $130 to trap, hold and euthanize (national average) • $20 to TNR (IndyFeral)

18. Utah Community Cat Act§11-46-303 • Gives Utah cities the freedom to release cats immediately for TNR • Community cats are eligible for release prior to the 5-day hold period

19. Hazards of Feeding Bans • They are impossible to enforce • Starving cats continue to breed • Desperate cats move closer to homes • Malnourished cats are more susceptible to illness and parasites • Other food sources are available • Criminalizing kindness is bad public policy

20. Problems with Cat Licensing • Difficult to enforce • May increase shelter admissions because if too costly, people relinquish cats • Hard to market for indoor-only cats • TNR implications: • Cost-prohibitive • Cats are not “owned”

21. Hazards of Pet Limits • Limits are arbitrary • Negatively impacts responsible pet owners • Difficult and costly to enforce • Fails to prevent hoarding situations • May deter people from fostering animals

22. Cats Are Not the Primary Threat to Birds • “By far the largest threat to birds is loss and/or degradation of habitat”* • Human development • Agriculture • Chemical toxins • Direct exploitation • Hunting • Capturing birds for pets *Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Threats to Native Birds:http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/conservation/planning/threats

23. Liability • Unsocialized cats tend to avoid people, thus minimizing likelihood of contact • Community cats are typically vaccinated against rabies • Liability results from negligence: A municipality’s involvement in TNR for the purpose of reducing free-roaming cat populations, protecting public health (mandatory rabies vaccinations), and resolving nuisance complaints is NOT negligence

24. Advantages of Adopting a TNR Ordinance • Promotes community involvement • Establishes reasonable standards • Defines duties • Encourages caregiver cooperation • Gains caregiver trust

25. Effective Public Policy • Must consider the human dimension • No solution works in every area • Need creative, integrated programs • Must be cost-effective • TNR (for maximum effect) • Caregiver trust and cooperation • Adoption

26. Existing Resources in(insert name of city/town/or county) Compile a list of all resources available to support TNR of free-roaming cats: • Funding • Existing programs • Volunteers • Cooperative agreements • Etc.

27. Ask them for what you want • Be clear and concise • Do you want: Money? If so, how much? Bans lifted? TNR ordinance adopted?

28. Thank you!