Feral Freedom Jacksonville

Communities are following the lead of a successful joint program of a national animal welfare organization, a Florida animal welfare group and a Florida city to address the free-roaming cat issue.

Shelly Kotter, campaign specialist for Best Friends Animal Societys Focus on Felines said, Feral Freedom is the one model that can be implemented anywhere that a nonprofit animal organization and a city are willing to work together.

Rick DuCharme is the executive director of First Coast No More Homeless Pets in Jacksonville, Fla. First Coast has partnered with national animal welfare organization Best Friends Animal Society, the City of Jacksonville, and Jacksonville Humane Society in Feral Freedom. The cats that arrive to the city animal shelter in traps are turned over First Coast to be spay/neutered then returned to their original trap location in the process known as Trap-Neuter-Return or TNR.

These cats are referred to as community cats and close to 7,000 of them have been helped since the programs inception in August 2008. TNR saves communities money. Costs vary from community to community, but in general, it costs about 50 percent more to trap and kill cats than to employ TNR. DuCharme calculates Feral Freedom is saving the City of Jacksonville between $130,000 and $150,000 annually.

Word of the success of Feral Freedom has been spreading and communities in Florida, South Carolina, Washington and Ohio have studied Feral Freedom and are developing their own humane programs intended to stop the breeding and provide support to caregivers for these community cats.

In fact, the first program based on Feral Freedom was adopted in January 2010 in South Carolina by Charleston County Community Initiative, which is a program of another national animal welfare organization, ASPCA (American Association Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). This adds a new component to Charleston Countys already existing programs for community cats. Charleston County has 17 different municipalities, and local ordinances had to be passed to allow for free-roaming cats.

Joe Elmore, ASPCA director of Charleston County Community Initiative, said we are mostly adopting the Feral Freedoms idea of transportation of cats in stable health back to the vicinity where they were trapped. Because we know without returning the cats to their previous location, the most probable outcome for a feral cat in a shelter is that it will be killed.

The groundwork we've laid with the council members and officials has worked thus far. The City of North Charleston officials approved the program through an interpretation of its current ordinance. The City of Charleston unanimously approved the program through the introduction of a new ordinance which became law on November 16, 2009, and Charleston County approved a new ordinance in December.

Meanwhile in California, a recent ruling by a California judge (Los Angeles Superior Court Case #BS115483) has barred the City of Los Angeles Department of Animal Services from their nominal support of TNR.

When she compares the success in Florida with the recent ban in California on local government support for TNR, Kotter said she is baffled:

Without TNR, last seasons kittens will be breeding this spring and will no doubt be increasing the number of cats on the streets in Los Angeles. Its ironic that advocates for birds brought the case to court since TNR has been proven to humanely reduce the number of free-roaming cats. We know that killing community cats is not the way to decrease the numbers ... if killing them worked, we would not have an estimated 50 to 80 million homeless cats across the country.




Elmore said he also is puzzled by opposition to these programs by people who say the cats are killing birds. We are trying to solve their problem for them. The point of TNR is to radically reduce the number of homeless cats on the street. We presented the councils with statistics for the last five years proving that removal and euthanasia does not work. TNR works, is more humane, and saves taxpayers money.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Feral Freedom Jacksonville
• Community Cats

[aeldridge345]

Atleast someone understands every feral deserves a chance for domestication

[ssspune]

Wonderful video! We featured it in our ASPCA Shelters' Edge blog today!

[deathsquid]

I hope you are encouraging all the people who feed the cats to take full responsibility for them and have them fixed and vaccinated. If the cats are following you around, they are likely someone's pet or abandoned pet and proper homes could probably be found for them.

In many places the law states that if you feed an animal you are legally responsible for them (usually includes rabies shot and keep cat under control).

Real feral cats are much more afraid of people.

[deathsquid]

I am also concerned that they let cats go in neighborhoods without asking the homeowners FIRST. What do they do if someone doesn't want the cat re-released?

While I love cats, I wouldn't want any roaming in my yard - partly because my own pet cats would not like it and out of concern for the native wild animals in my yard.

[deathsquid]

First, I am glad that this program microchips the cats routinely. I wish other TNR programs would do the same - but it is a rarity.

I am concerned that the video showed two tame kittens being released! Why weren't they adopted out to a loving home? The woman wishes them well and "hopes they stay safe". Doesn't sound very humane to me. They would be safe in someone's home.

[SubparPanda]

This seems like a good program.

My town has a bunch of feral cats luckily people seem to get along great with them,feeding them and such. They're nice to see walking around and I think since people are nice to them they are nice to people. And if you go on a walk a cat or two might start following you around. It happened to me once! :)

[rebelwithoutastraw]

That's excellent! You do amazing work at Best Friends!