Viva La Feral Freedom

June is Adopt-a-Cat Month, and the feline members of my family claim I've been remiss devoting so much time to their pit bull terrier siblings. There have been hairballs on my pillow, and it's not pretty. So, I'm atoning for the perceived slight.

Cat adoptions, especially during kitten season, are hard to come by. And forget it for feral cats who enter shelters — in most shelters, they are automatically euthanized as a matter of policy. However, there is hope: Feral Freedom liberates the kitties, and it's easier than herding cats.

This innovative program started with an idea from Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services. Animal Care was looking to save money. Let's face it: Catching and killing cats is not only morally problematic, it's expensive. Just check out Best Friends' Community Cat Fiscal Impact Calculator to see how much your community could save by allowing a Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, and Return (a.k.a. TNR) program. Jacksonville Animal Care approached the creative Rick DuCharme of First Coast No More Homeless Pets.

What would happen if the feral cats never even entered the shelter? These resourceful felines had been getting along on their own, usually quite well, so in reality they were "community cats." Could FCNMHP sterilize the cats and return them to their community?

DuCharme liked the idea, but needed to come up with funding. He called Best Friends Animal Society because, after all, Best Friends' goal is also "No More Homeless Pets." The seed money for the program was found, and Feral Freedom was launched in August 2008.

The program has worked better than the humans (and perhaps even the cats) anticipated, with positive results similar to the longstanding program at the University of Central Florida. For years UCF tried a trap/removal campaign to reduce the number of community cats on their 1,415 acre property. It didn't work. Starting in 1991, all the cats were sterilized, photographed and returned to managed colonies. No new kittens were born in the colonies after 1995, and the campus cat population declined from 68 cats in 1996 to 11 cats in 2010. Obviously, the fewer community cats, the less impact on wildlife. 

The success in Florida is being mirrored in Cook County, Illinois. According to a November 13, 2009 letter from Dr. Donna Alexander of the Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control, the largest feral cat caretaker "sponsor" reported a 30 percent decrease in their colony's population from November 2007 to October 2009. A study is now  being done on 5 community cat colonies in the county and their interactions/impact on wildlife in the area.

In the Jacksonville program, citizens work with animal control to get cats to the shelter, where FCNMHP picks them up twice daily to take them to the Spay/Neuter Clinic. The next day, after receiving surgery and other vet care, the cats are returned to the trapping site and educational materials are distributed in the neighborhood to explain the program.

According to a recent presentation given by DuCharme and Dr. Julie Levy (of Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program at the University  of Florida), in 2007, before Feral Freedom, the live release rate at Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services was only 7 percent. After Feral Freedom, the live release rate skyrocketed — it approached 70 percent some months, an unheard-of percentage in the animal sheltering world.

In Jacksonville, the ferals are now making it out alive. But the friendly, sweet kittens and cats are still at risk. Go figure. You can help. Celebrate Adopt-a-Cat Month by adopting a cat or spaying a feral cat. And the next time you see a house with a "free kitten" sign, pull in and offer to pay for the momma cat's sterilization. 

Let's humanely reduce the number of community cats through TNR. Viva la Feral Freedom!

Photo Credit: Best Friends Animal Society