Fayette Humane Society’s traps, neuters, releases more feral cats at lower cost than Animal Control
For those who have taken to heart legendary TV host Bob Barker’s plea to “help control the pet population,” a report at the Oct. 23 meeting of the Fayette County Board of Commissioners will be especially encouraging.
The Fayette County Humane Society’s data from a recent six-month test of its TNR (trap-neuter-release) program also give credence to those who maintain that the private sector can perform certain tasks better than government — and the commissioners are among those who agree with that assessment.
“If you see four cats living around the dumpster behind McDonald’s, you don’t mind,” said Kimberly Davis, who addressed the board on behalf of the Humane Society. “But if there are 100 cats, it’s not good.”
That reasoning, in a nutshell, is the impetus behind the TNR program, which allows the existing feral cat population to live in its environment without leaving behind hundreds or even thousands of unwanted descendants.
The process allows Humane Society volunteers to take the cats using traps that are safe for the animals as well as the human operators. The felines are then neutered, vaccinated and the volunteers “return them to live their lives,” as Davis put it.
After four areas in the county were identified previously as susceptible to large feral cat populations, the commissioners had approved the six-month test at those sites in April.
Testing has been completed in the 4 Seasons and Bryson Lane neighborhoods north of Fayetteville, while it continues in the Kenwood and Brooks areas, Davis said. The Humane Society also included in its test results a large number of cats received through calls from various locations around the county.
Data presented by the organization showed that an estimated 621 cats were located in these areas, with 503 of them being fixed and another 51 identified as “surrender kittens.”
When kittens are found with the feral cats, Davis said that in some cases they are young enough that they can be domesticated and put out for adoption (the ones they found were also neutered and vaccinated).
Eight of the cats retrieved through the program were deemed by veterinarians to be so sickly or injured that the best course of action was to have them euthanized, Davis reported.
But these were not the statistics that really got the board’s attention. It was a comparison of the TNR test program to the last six months of activity in the county’s animal control department that made everyone take notice.
Davis reported that while Humane Society took in 554 cats during the period from April to September, with 49 adoptions and eight euthanized, the cost was $24,930. In contrast, during the same time period Fayette County Animal Control took in 323 cats (including feral cats and domesticated cats), adopting out 138 and euthanizing the remaining 185, at a cost of $35,060.
The numbers bolstered the argument that the TNR program worked with fewer animal lives lost and at a much lower cost — not to mention that the Humane Society’s cost consisted of zero tax dollars.
Davis noted that the areas targeted as test sites have already seen fewer animal control calls and the program has gotten considerable positive feedback from the public.
The Humane Society was seeking commissioner approval to continue the TNR operations as well as the development of ordinances that would promote a collaborative effort with Animal Control.
County animal control staff was extremely appreciate and complimentary of the Humane Society’s efforts and expressed to the board that their collaborative efforts need to continue.
The board wholeheartedly agreed with that assessment, making it clear that its consensus was to move forward with the program while possible ordinances are fast-tracked for future consideration, perhaps in December.
County manager Steve Rapson did some quick math and pointed out that, because of future litters that would be prevented, the TNR program is actually lowering the unwanted cat population by thousands through the efforts to treat the few hundred animals received during the test period.
Davis replied with a staggering number of her own: A single cat, because of her ability to produce three litters a year, has the potential for six million descendants within six years.
In other animal-related news, the board unanimously approved a new animal ordinance that county officials said would beef up enforcement and punishment in cruelty cases and help make it easier to identify owners of animals in question during such cases.
Commissioner David Barlow pointed out that some animal cruelty cases had been thrown out of court because the language in the ordinance was not strong enough. County Manager Steve Rapson agreed, saying that his staff worked with the solicitor and a state court judge to put the new ordinance together for exactly that reason.
