New strategies for community cats

Dr. Kate HurleyUC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Programwww.sheltermedicine.comwww.facebook.com/sheltermedicine

http://www.sheltermedicine.com/http://www.facebook.com/sheltermedicine

My backgroundUh oh…

The problem

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The Cat Continuum

74-86 million pet cats 30-80 million community cats

Traditional shelter programs

Majority of shelter intake

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PresenterPresentation Notes92,168 cats euthanized in Ohio in 2004

How’s that working for you?

Some good news

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20

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80

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120

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0

5

10

15

20

25

1970 1985 1992 1994 1996 1998 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

Cats

& d

ogs k

illed

per

1,0

00 h

uman

s

Mill

ions

of d

ogs &

cat

s kill

ed

But…

…and it’s a BIG but…

Ohio 1996-2004

+10%

-19%

+11%

-40%

-60%

-40%

-20%

0%

20%

Intake Euthanasia

Colorado 2000-2007

20%

-11%

36%

0%

-20%

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Intake Euthanasia

+28%

-1%

+24%

-32%

-40%

-30%

-20%

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Intake Euthanasia

California 2000-2010

The Cat who Loved Kittens

PresenterPresentation NotesRead from Peter Marsh’s “The Cat Who Loved Kittens” - “She was a stray, domestic long-haired blue cream tortoiseshell, who was brought to our shelter 29 days ago. She was a very pretty cat. She loved kittens. She didn’t have any with her when she came in, but when she was allowed out of her cage for exercise, she would run up to the cages with kittens in them and try to clean them by licking them….On the days that our shelter was closed, I’d let her out of the cage to stretch out on my desk and she’d try to play with my pen while I tried to do my paperwork. Two weeks ago, she became the cat who had been at our shelter the longest, so I had her photographed and made her ‘Pet of the Week’ in our local newspaper. Unfortunately not one person called…No one cared that she was beautiful. No one cared that she got along with dogs and cats. No one cared that she was young or that she had silky fur, or that she liked to clean kittens, or stretch out on a desk or play with a pen…”

The Cat Who Loved KittensShe was a stray, domestic long-haired blue cream tortoiseshell, who was brought to our shelter 29 days ago. She was a very pretty cat. She loved kittens. She didn’t have any with her when she came in, but when she was allowed out of her cage for exercise, she would run up to the cages with kittens in them and try to clean them by licking them….On the days that our shelter was closed, I’d let her out of the cage to stretch out on my desk and she’d try to play with my pen while I tried to do my paperwork. Two weeks ago, she became the cat who had been at our shelter the longest, so I had her photographed and made her ‘Pet of the Week’ in our local newspaper. Unfortunately not one person called…No one cared that she was beautiful. No one cared that she got along with dogs and cats. No one cared that she was young or that she had silky fur, or that she liked to clean kittens, or stretch out on a desk or play with a pen…

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“…Today, when other unwanted cats came through our door filling our cat room beyond capacity, I lovingly took her life.”

* Excerpted from GETTING TO ZERO: A ROADMAP TO ENDING ANIMAL SHELTER OVERPOPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES — PETER MARSH, http://www.shelteroverpopulation.org/

PresenterPresentation NotesRead from Peter Marsh’s “The Cat Who Loved Kittens” - “She was a stray, domestic long-haired blue cream tortoiseshell, who was brought to our shelter 29 days ago. She was a very pretty cat. She loved kittens. She didn’t have any with her when she came in, but when she was allowed out of her cage for exercise, she would run up to the cages with kittens in them and try to clean them by licking them….On the days that our shelter was closed, I’d let her out of the cage to stretch out on my desk and she’d try to play with my pen while I tried to do my paperwork. Two weeks ago, she became the cat who had been at our shelter the longest, so I had her photographed and made her ‘Pet of the Week’ in our local newspaper. Unfortunately not one person called…No one cared that she was beautiful. No one cared that she got along with dogs and cats. No one cared that she was young or that she had silky fur, or that she liked to clean kittens, or stretch out on a desk or play with a pen…”

Graphic picture ahead

In California alone:2,510,741 cats in 10 years

276,052 in one year756 per day

What is the cost?

Why?

Why admit cats to your community’s shelter?

• Resolve citizen complaints and concerns

• Reunite lost cats with owners• Find new homes for cats• Reduce risk to pets, wildlife and

people caused by free roaming animals

• Control feline overpopulation

Resolve complaints? Put a lid on

the trash canKill the raccoon!

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Reunite cats with owners?

.

Find new homes for pets?

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10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000Cat Adoptions at California Shelters

Find new homes for pets?

-

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

450,000

Cat Intakes/Outcomes at California Shelters

Cat Intake

Cats Euthanized

Cats Adopted

Mitigate harm associated with outdoor cats?

Reality check

• 11 by 7 miles; 2500-3000 cats • 96 cats trapped, infected with panleukopenia,

released by helicopter• 8 full time teams of 2 hunters hunting day and night• 5 full time teams of 2 trappers running up to 1,387

lethal traps• Poison injected into 30,000 day-old chicks

• Cats eliminated after 14 years

“The eradication campaign on Marion Island hasbeen the largest and only successful one of its

kind.”

PresenterPresentation Notes7 years of hunting, up to 1387 traps over 5 years

Reality check

Shelter and community cat dynamics USA

39%

58%

1% 2%

Outdoor pet cats

Outdoor community cats

Cats impounded & released alive

Cats impounded & euthanized

Worse than nothing?

“Low level culling”• Intentionally replicated

“realistic efforts that could be achieved by natural resource managers”– 2 culling vs 1 control site– Up to 46 traps per site– 6-16 nights per “pulse”– Every 1-4 months for one

year• Monitored by remote

camera before, during and after trapping

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Results• 86 individual feral cats

identified at two culling sites

• 26 of these cats trapped (30%)

• Scanned for microchip; if none, shot in the head

• Number trapped per unit effort fell rapidly

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Did it work? • “Contrary to expectation, the relative abundance and activity

of feral cats increased in the cull-sites, even though the numbers of cats captured per unit effort during the culling period declined. Increases in minimum numbers of cats known to be alive ranged from 75% to 211% during the culling period, compared with pre- and post-cull estimates.”

• Cat numbers at non-culling control site remained stable• Cat numbers fell, and were comparable with those in the pre-

culling period, when culling ceased.

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R

RT

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R

RT

30

RT

31

RT

Rabies risk from cats decreased by 11%Toxoplasmosis risk unchanged

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R

RT

Rabies and toxoplasmosis risk from cats decreased by 33%

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PresenterPresentation NotesSuch compensatoryresponses have been documented in a wide range of speciesfollowing low-level culling (Sinclair et al. 2006), and can returna population swiftly to levels equivalent to, or greater than, itsnumbers pre-culling.

Theory into practice

Feral cats are being captured, neutered or spayed, microchippedthen released back to the streets under a new program called Feral Freedom, adopted by the City of San Jose.

• Euthanasia down 75%• Euthanasia due to URI down 99%• Cats picked up dead down 20%• Intake (cat and kitten) down 29%

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Not the right tool

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New choices• Expand the options for

live release via neuter and return

• Limit healthy cat intake to only those cats that can be released alive

• Invest resources not spent on euthanizing cats on programs to benefit cats, wildlife and communities

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Return to Field (RTF) (aka Shelter/Neuter/Return)

• Sterilize/vaccinate/return to location found

• Healthy stray or un-owned cats and older kittens brought to shelter– Cats at risk for euthanasia

• NOT relocation• NO identified feeder

required

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/feral_cats/tips/help_outdoor_cats_officials.html38

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/feral_cats/tips/help_outdoor_cats_officials.html

“But I don’t want that cat back.”

• The majority of cats come from the minority of complainants

• Spay/neuter/vaccinate resolves many problems

• Educate about deterrents • Use discretion on case by

case basis

Opening doors• Feeding cats is a reality• Non-lethal programs

open lines of communication– For cat protection– For nuisance mitigation

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Opening doors“That’s when I went to the city…I knew the new system was not to put ‘em to sleep. I hesitated going to the city if I knew they were going to put ‘em to

sleep. But I didn’t know what to do. I can’t take care of 20 or 30 cats!

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Serving the whole community

Leave the cats aloneTrap & kill the catsOther

“What would you do about un-owned cats

in the street?”

Will they be ok?

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Survivors

Less than 1% of >100,000 cats at TNR clinics

euthanized for humane reasons

Body condition score 5/9 on shelter intake

Annual survival of semi-owned cats up to 90%

(un-owned ~50%)

PresenterPresentation NotesMedian survival in managed colony 6.8 years; death/euthanasia on average ~ 5 years19Kitten mortality up to 75%; similar to other wild carnivores19

Will they be ok? We do track dead cats. We are the agency responsible for picking them up in our cities, and our officers have scanners on the trucks. We began an RTF program in early 2010. During that fiscal year, we picked up 1,715 dead cats. Fast forward to FY 13-14, with 11,000 cats going through the program, all microchipped, we have picked up 185 dead cats that were microchipped in the program. In addition, the total number of dead cats we have picked has declined 24% to 1,308 in FY 13-14. We haven't changed our dead pick up program or staffing related to that during that timeframe.

Jon Cicirelli, San Jose City Animal Care Services

Second chances

41%

34%

29%

19%

10%

Friend/relativeStrayAdoptedOtherBred at home

Cat source

What about shelters that don’t have the resources

for in-house surgery today?

Alternatives to intake• Small public shelter

– Staff of 6, serving ~ 90,000 people

• Discontinued intake of all healthy cats– Healthy owner surrenders →

private shelter for adoption– Finders of strays → resources

to find owner and/or TNR group in community

– Staff counsel community members on coexisting with cats

http://www.animalsheltering.org/resources/magazine/mar-apr-2015/change-for-the-better.html

PresenterPresentation NotesStaff of 6 for city of almost 90K

http://www.animalsheltering.org/resources/magazine/mar-apr-2015/change-for-the-better.html

The new policy means more work on the front

end for staff, who have to explain the options for

people who have unwanted cats in their

yard, for example, Mohr says.

But the trade-off is that fewer cats enter

the shelter, and fewer get

euthanized—which makes for a happier

staff.

A whole new ballgame

Intake ↓ from 1881 to 442, euthanasia ↓ from 527 to 88 (including ORE)

Initiated 2/2013

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Letting the community step up

Word is out since we had a gentleman come in saying he knows

we don't accept feral cats, but where can he get traps to do TNR.

We have gotten a lot of support from the media and the public, and it vastly outweighs the people who

are against it.

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When to consider alternatives• Underage kittens when

foster resources are not available

• Ferals when neuter/return is not an option

• Healthy strays when admission would mean euthanasia or crowding and reclaim is unlikely

• Owner surrenders when the human/animal bond can be preserved

When to consider alternatives

• Any cat that would be better served through another organization or by staying where it is

Resources for finders• Resources for finding the

owner– Post on shelter website– Lost and found facebook

page– Third party website– Scan for microchip– Downloadable flyer to

print• Resources for co-

existence– Spay/neuter/vaccination– Non-lethal deterrents– Responsible care

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FAQMy question is always, "if we don't

take them, what will happen to them? What field will they be

dumped in? What river or creek will they be drowned in?" The

possibilities if we didn't take them eliminated the possibility of turning

an animal away.

Remember this

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Last week

And remember this

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Initiated 2/2013

No measurable impact on risk

Same choice, another shelter

So for the other hard headed animal control folks like myself I hope they will take the leap and know while I don’t think it is perfect (since we can’t tnr right now) I am very thankful to have been a part of the movement that has saved thousands of lives AND lightened the burden placed on our souls and that of our staff that have had to euthanize these cats all these years.

Betty Cochran, Clovis Animal Services, Clovis, CA

Don’t wait for perfect to aim for better

Want to know more?

www.millioncatchallenge.org

http://www.millioncatchallenge.org/

New strategies for community catsMy backgroundThe problemThe Cat ContinuumSlide Number 5Some good newsBut…Ohio 1996-2004Colorado 2000-2007California 2000-2010The Cat who Loved KittensThe Cat Who Loved KittensSlide Number 13Slide Number 14Slide Number 15Slide Number 16Why admit cats to your community’s shelter? Resolve complaints? Reunite cats with owners?Find new homes for pets? Find new homes for pets? Mitigate harm associated with outdoor cats?Reality checkReality checkWorse than nothing?“Low level culling”ResultsDid it work? Slide Number 29Slide Number 30Slide Number 31Slide Number 32Slide Number 33Theory into practiceSlide Number 35Not the right toolNew choicesReturn to Field (RTF) �(aka Shelter/Neuter/Return)“But I don’t want that cat back.”Opening doorsOpening doorsServing the whole communityWill they be ok? SurvivorsWill they be ok? Second chancesSlide Number 47Alternatives to intakeSlide Number 49A whole new ballgameLetting the community step upWhen to consider alternativesWhen to consider alternativesResources for findersFAQRemember thisLast week And remember thisNo measurable impact on riskSame choice, another shelterDon’t wait for perfect to aim for better Want to know more?