The Fayette Humane Society has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Petco Foundation to support its Trap-Neuter-Return program for free-roaming community cats.
The Fayette Humane Society is a nonprofit animal rescue organization serving Fayette and surrounding counties, dedicated to ending the needless suffering of unwanted cats and dogs through adoption and an aggressive spay/neuter program. Since 2014, FHS has partnered with the Fayette County Commissioners and Fayette County Animal Welfare & Control to implement TNR as the preferred method of handling feral cat complaints. Not only have taxpayer dollars been saved, but since the program began, 23 percent fewer cats have been taken into the animal shelter and ultimately killed.
The Petco Foundation investment will fund spay/neuter surgery and rabies shots for approximately 100 free-roaming cats, ensuring that they will not reproduce and add to the growing cat overpopulation problem. FHS volunteers will work with local property owners and feral cat caretakers to trap the cats, transport them to low-cost spay/neuter clinics such as HELP or Lifeline, and then return them to their outdoor homes to live out their natural lives. Tame adult cats and kittens young enough to socialize will be taken into the FHS foster system and placed for adoption in indoor homes.
“The winter is a critical time to carry out this important work, getting the female cats fixed before they go into heat and produce new litters of kittens,” said Sharon Marchisello, FHS secretary. “And we always need more volunteers to trap, transport, and/or foster adoptable cats and kittens.”
For more information about the Fayette Humane Society or the Petco Foundation, visit www.fayettehumane.org or www.petcofoundation.org. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or by using the hashtag #PetcoFoundation.
