Helping Homeless Cats

(NAPSI)-If you're feeding cats outdoors-whether tame or feral (not tame)-you're not alone. Experts say the welfare and management of these unneutered and unspayed cats is an issue in almost every community.

Problems associated with these cats include:

• a growing population

• frequent and loud noise from fighting and mating behavior

• strong foul odors from unneutered male cats spraying to mark their territory

• visible suffering from dying kittens and injured adults.

In addition to nuisance calls about these problems, shelters in a community with large homeless cat populations usually experience higher animal control costs due to trapping efforts and/or costs associated with caring for and euthanizing homeless cats. Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is an effective method for improving the lives of feral cats and reducing their numbers.

The cats targeted for TNR are feral cats. Feral cats are the offspring of lost or abandoned pet cats or other feral cats who are not spayed or neutered. They do not easily adapt or may never adapt to living indoors as pets in close contact with people.

At a minimum, feral cats who are part of a TNR program are spayed or neutered so they can no longer reproduce. In addition, they are vaccinated against rabies, surgically ear-tipped on one ear and returned to their territory. Ear-tipping is the universally recognized sign of a cat who has been TNRed.

Dedicated caretakers feed and provide shelter for these cats, monitor them for sickness and trap new cats who appear. If the captured cats are feral, they are TNRed; if the captured cats are lost or abandoned pet cats, they are reunited with their families or adopted into new homes. If they are kittens young enough to be socialized, they are also adopted.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) believes that cat overpopulation is a community-generated problem and that every community has a responsibility to work toward an effective long-term solution.

TNR of feral cats is part of that solution. In addition, pet cats must be spayed or neutered before they can reproduce at 5 months of age, kept indoors or safely confined to their property, provided with safety collars and ID and searched for immediately if they go missing.

To learn more about managing cat overpopulation, visit www.humanesociety.org/feralcats.

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Georgia Heartland Humane Society's Pet Overpopulation Initiative Update

AAG Note: Earlier this year, the Georgia Heartland Humane Society entered a pet into the Humane Society of the United States Photo Contest for Spay Day 2008. Below is a tidbit from Georgia Heartland Humane Society as they acknowledge the wonderful readers and benefits of the Fayette Front Page.

The Georgia Heartland Humane Society rescues abandoned and abused animals to be placed in forever homes. Since its inception, the GHHS adoption contract has specified that the adopter must have the animal spayed or neutered within a specified time period. That condition was not negotiable. But now, GHHS no longer puts the onus on the adopter. In February 2008, GHHS launched their Pet Overpopulation Initiative.

The decision to launch a Pet Overpopulation Initiative coincided with Spay Day USA 2008, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States. Being a small organization, GHHS started small. The first seed money came from HSUS. Buster, the Kitten, their entry in the HSUS photo contest, came in 8th in the nation. His winning pot of nearly $700 was the seed money. Fayette Front Page was instrumental in Buster’s victory. They displayed his photo prominently, encouraging readers to vote for him. Candy sales, donations, and a successful bake sale at the Adoptathon have added to the funds reserved strictly for spay/neuter.

To read the entire story, click here.

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Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone

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Disney’s Animal Programs Leads International Effort to Help Africa Manage Growing Elephant Populations

BUSINESS WIRE --Disney’s Animal Programs is leading an international coalition of veterinarians, conservation groups, zoos, universities and private industry to conduct a series of procedures to effectively sterilize male elephants and help reduce the elephant birth rates in areas of South Africa. The team expects to perform laparoscopic vasectomies on eight bull elephants at the Pongola Game Reserve in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa.

Elephant overpopulation in wildlife parks and reserves in southern Africa is a growing problem that can have devastating effects on the natural habitat as well as other animal species that live there. Wildlife officials in several countries are considering culling many elephants in order to control the population growth.

“Elephant population management is one of the most critical conservation issues facing many areas of Africa” said Dr. Mark Stetter, Director of Veterinary Services at Disney’s Animal Programs and principal investigator. “Through our recent successes, elephant vasectomies have been an effective tool at several wildlife reserves to reduce the need for culling, and help support the ecosystem. As an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) we are committed to pioneering creative solutions to problems facing all wildlife by using the technology and tools available to address conservation and wildlife issues.”

In July 2004, this team of experts performed the first ever sterilization of free-ranging female elephants. In 2005, the group began its work with bull elephants and started developing laparoscopic vasectomy techniques for sterilizing males in the wild. The team returned to South Africa in 2006 and 2007 and effectively sterilized bull elephants at the Welgevonden Wildlife Reserve and the Songimvelo Wildlife Reserve.

Elephants are unique among most mammals since their testes are internal and require abdominal surgery to perform a vasectomy, making the traditional procedure nearly impossible to do in the wild. This innovative new procedure involves state-of-the-art medical equipment specifically developed for this project and scaled from human to elephant proportions. The elephant laparoscopic equipment was built by the Karl Storz Company at their headquarters in Germany. Laparoscopic surgery allows the surgeon to view the internal organs on a monitor and use long thin instruments to perform the surgery. With this type of minimally invasive surgery, the risk of infection is decreased, the procedure time is significantly reduced and there is less post-operative discomfort.

Wildlife scientists and rangers will use telemetry tracking collars placed on the elephants during the procedure, to closely monitor the animals and ensure there are no post-operative complications. All bull elephants that have had this procedure in 2006 and 2007, have fully recovered and shown no side effects from the procedure. A vasectomy effectively sterilizes the bull elephants while maintaining normal hormone levels and normal elephant social behaviors.

“Disney’s Animal Programs commitment to the animal population is truly admirable,” said Jeff Hunt, President of Covidien’s Patient Care and Safety Products global business unit. “Minimally invasive surgery has been implemented for years in people and more recently available for pets - and now even wildlife. We are proud to participate with this coalition’s innovative approach to solving a complex conservation issue.”

This is an international collaborative project that brings together conservation groups, universities and private industry including Disney's Animal Programs, Colorado State University/College of Veterinary Medicine, the Zoological Society of San Diego, Covidien, the Karl Storz Company, Catchco Africa - Wildlife Specialists, the Veterinary College of South Africa at Onderstepoort and the Pongola Game Reserve to address this complex problem. The long-term goal is to have in country trained specialists and elephant laparoscopic equipment to be able to provide this service to wildlife parks throughout Southern Africa.