Kitty Crusaders Yard Sale

When: Saturday, April 4th, 2009, 8am-2pm
Where: Mason Upholstery and Fabrics, 3280 Old Jefferson Rd, Athens, GA
Kitty Crusaders is starting monthly yard sales to raise money for the spays/neuters, vacccinations, vet care, food, and litter for homeless cats in off-campus Athens-Clarke County. Please come to the sale and purchase something or leave a donation by contacting Abby Griner at kittycrusadersofathens@gmail.com. We will have everything from clothing to furniture to vintage items to handmade gifts available for purchase at the yard sale. There will be something for everyone!

Feral feline problem now life-or-death issue

By BLAKE AUED | blake.aued@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:35 pm on 3/27/2009
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/032809/new_415448061.shtml

The Athens Area Humane Society will stop accepting feral cats next year, and local officials may turn to a controversial method of neutering and feeding the thousands of wild cats that roam the city.

The Humane Society told the Athens-Clarke Commission this month that, starting in July 2010, it will stop keeping feral cats in its tiny county-owned Beaverdam Road shelter and move the shelter to its more spacious clinic in Watkinsville.

The Humane Society has kept cats, rabbits and other small animals for years, while Athens-Clarke animal control officers will pick up those animals, but deal mostly with dogs and the occasional goat or chicken.

The society is backing out of its $100,000 annual contract with the county over a philosophical difference, said Executive Director Crystal Evans said. Keeping what is essentially a wild animal in a cage for five business days - the amount of time the county requires for any animal it picks up - is cruel and futile, because they rarely are adopted, Evans said.

"We would argue, for a truly feral animal, that's inhumane," she said. "These are cats that have had basically no human contact, so basically what you're doing is scaring them to death for seven days and then killing them."

The approximately 120 aggressive feral cats taken to the humane society each year occupy space that could be used for adoptable pets, forcing more cats to be euthanized and upsetting donors, Evans said. They're also a danger to employees, she said.

Athens-Clarke officials have a year to figure out how to control the feral cat population, estimated at 8,000 to 20,000. Options include expanding government-run animal control, contracting with another agency or simply doing nothing, said David Fluck, director of the Central Services Department, which oversees animal control.

If another agency is chosen to deal with feral cats, the county could turn to an organization like the Campus Cats, a volunteer group that traps feral cats, has them spayed or neutered, vaccinates them and returns them to where they were caught.

Trap-neuter-release, or TNR, now is illegal in Clarke County, but not on University of Georgia-owned land. Advocates are lobbying county commissioners to change the local law to allow it.

Mayor Heidi Davison said she would consider putting a TNR group in charge of feral cats, but said any discussion won't take place until later this year.

"It's on the back burner for the moment," Davison said, citing the county budget and other pressing issues. "I'm trying to put all the pieces together still."

More and more local governments are allowing TNR, and a few, such as Jacksonville, Fla., are turning over feral cat management to TNR groups.

TNR is a highly controversial practice among cat-lovers, though. Supporters call it a kinder alternative to capturing and killing feral cats.

"Our mission has always been to keep ferals out of the system, because we believe it is unethical to kill healthy animals," said Campus Cats coordinator Kelly Bettinger, a UGA wildlife biologist.

Critics say TNR doesn't work and its supporters are driven by emotion, not science. Many studies show that TNR does nothing to reduce feral cat populations. Not all of the cats can ever be sterilized, and even the ones that are can feast on birds and otherwise wreak havoc on the environment, said Nico Dauphine, another UGA wildlife biologist.

"There's very little or, arguably, no evidence at all that it's effective," Dauphine said. "To me, it's just a lot about people's discomfort with death and people not wanting to deal with it."

Dauphine said her yard is a wildlife habitat, and feral cats nearly wiped out all the birds that live there. They're natural predators and an invasive species, so local prey have no defense against them, she said.

Feral cats carry rabies and a parasite that can cause schizophrenia and miscarriages, veterinarian Rick Gerhold said. And feeding them, as many TNR volunteers do, attracts raccoons, which also carry rabies and other diseases, he said.

"You're going to have a lot more cats in the area, and even if they vaccinate some of them, you're still going to have a lot of them that are infected," Gerhold said.

TNR advocates, though, are armed with their own studies that say the practice is effective, safe and, of course, better for the cats than death.

"Campus is a very safe and good home for our cats," Bettinger said. "We have fat, happy cats on our campus."

Volunteers care for about 30 feral cats on campus, down from 150, Bettinger said, and want to expand beyond the Arch if county commissioners change the law so a person who feeds a cat no longer legally owns it.

TNR should be legal but not the sole means of managing feral cats, Athens-Clarke Commissioner Kelly Girtz said.

"I don't think anybody thinks of it as the silver bullet, the be-all end-all," Girtz said. "It's something that's useful, but not in all circumstances."

That view is similar to the Athens Area Humane Society's position: that TNR should be a legal option to euthanasia.

"The simple fact is neither is a perfect solution, but what we want to happen is for individuals to be able to choose," Evans said.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Saturday, March 28, 2009

A Barn Cat Program Success Story!

"Dear Abby,

Yes, even some adult cats that are feral can be tamed. The two adult females you brought to my farm are doing great. They were Chita and Trixie. Chita is a little more standoffish but loves to hang out in the barn and rafters. Trixie is a big baby. My son, who had the apartment in the garage/barn had Trixie in his room the first week. Yes, she hid under his bed and was still very shy but he just talked to her more and more.

She now loves to sit on his lap, cuddle with him at night and interferes with him playing Xbox and his laptop.

She has also become best friends with our other adult coal-black female cat, Coda. I never thought with them both being girls that they would have so much fun together. They romp and play in between the chicken coops and in the pasture all day long.

Chita hangs out in the barn and will sit nearby and watches you....just prefers being by herself and is a little "stuck-up" still - LOL.

Anyway, wanted you to know they are doing great.

I will send you pictures soon.

Thanks,

Caroline" [Dacula, Georgia]

University of West Georgia group tries to manage feral cats

By LAURA CAMPER
Carrollton Times-Georgian
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Around 150 to 200 stray cats prowl the University of West Georgia, feasting on the mice and birds as well as food remnants left by students, and since October 2007 CampusCATS has been working to keep the population healthy and manageable.

The cats, which live in drain pipes and hidden burrows throughout the campus, were coming out during the breaks when students weren’t occupying the campus and leaving more evidence of their presence in public areas.

“The ferals were coming out more, because they didn’t have access I guess to the food Dumpsters that they normally had,” said Ineke Abunawass, who works in the environmental safety and health office. “We were kind of curious as to what to do for them.” The university considered calling animal control to pick up the animals, but knew more cats would move in to take their place. Strays are adept at finding food sources and relatively comfortable quarters, she said.

After researching the problem online, Abunawass found a better way to manage the cats and protect the students. She started a trap, neuter and release program at the university. Through the program, she traps the animals in humane traps and takes them to the West Georgia Spay and Neuter clinic in Villa Rica. There the cats are spayed or neutered and vaccinated for rabies and distemper. Afterward, she returns them to the area of campus where they were caught. So far the group has been able to capture and neuter 36 cats.

Many of the cats are wild and completely undomesticated. They will never be able to live in a home, and some people feel they are a danger to the community.

But the program has also trapped some kittens that were young enough to domesticate, and those are put up for adoption so they can have a better life than is offered as a feral cat. Nine young cats have been adopted.

The project also has an educational component, teaching students to be responsible pet owners. She hopes showing the students what really happens to those abandoned cats, can help stop them from taking in pets they can’t care for.

After starting CampusCATS, Abunawass tried unsuccessfully to get a student organization to adopt the program.

So, she approached the Carroll County Humane Society about taking in the program under its umbrella of services.

“The best part for us, outside of that we can give people the letters for their donations, is that they handle the accounting also,” Abunawass said.

Humane Society Hoping to Quit Handling Feral Cats

A proposal by the Athens Area Humane Society (AAHS) would revise the agency’s relationship with Athens-Clarke County Animal Control and get the Humane Society out of the business of dealing with feral cats. First presented to the ACC Mayor and Commission at a budget work session Feb. 26, the proposal’s changes would likely take effect more than a year from now if followed. The Feb. 26 session was one of several budget work sessions for presentations from independent agencies which receive relatively small annual subsidies from the ACC government for the services they perform. AAHS is asking for a county subsidy for Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10), as it has for many years, but it hopes to be free of county funding by FY11.

In doing so, AAHS plans to relinquish its contracted responsibility to perform animal-control functions - mainly, taking in and euthanizing the aggressive and unsocialized feral cats which are brought to it - and become an “adoption guarantee” facility where every domestic animal brought in finds a home. AAHS is already at or near that point: it says it has only euthanized one “healthy, adoptable” cat in the past two years.

That hasn’t always been the case, though, and it’s been mainly through a concerted effort over the last few years that the agency has drastically reduced its euthanasia rates for healthy adoptables. AAHS hired its current director, Crystal Schultz, two and a half years ago; in the year prior to her arrival it euthanized 70 healthy adoptable cats, she says. Two changes were crucial to that improvement. One was the opening of an adoption center at Pet Supplies Plus, which adopted out 700 cats last year, twice the number adopted from the AAHS headquarters in a county building on Beaverdam Road in the previous year. The other was a decision to reduce the length of the “hold period” for which a feral cat is kept at the shelter prior to being euthanized - an inevitable step for almost every feral cat, of which there are many in the county. According to Schultz, Athens-Clarke’s five-day hold period policy means that ferals with no chance at adoption take up space and resources that can go towards saving and adopting out healthy cats. “We’re trying to lower the cage space [ferals] take up… so that we can extend the hold period for healthy adoptables and improve the chances that they can make it out of the shelter alive,” she says.

“We want to focus our resources on the animals that we can treat and save,” Schultz says. She says that AAHS’s last two ACC budget proposals have raised the question of “moving away” from its roughly 25-year-old county contract, and that the organization’s board and staff have in the past year discussed becoming an adoption-guarantee facility. “We basically had to decide, ’Do we want to continue to be ”the pound“ for cats, or do we want to be a humane society?’”

It’s a type of move that’s been happening in other communities, too, Schultz says, where humane organizations have found themselves with municipal contracts and eventually found the need to move away from those contracts. In the words of ACC Central Services Director David Fluck, whose department includes Animal Control, “There is a little bit of a conflict between their mission and our mission.”

Fluck also doesn’t deny that the AAHS proposal presents “a challenge for us.” He says the contours of a new arrangement haven’t been explored yet, and probably won’t be examined in detail until after the FY10 budget development cycle ends later this spring. Expanding ACC Animal Control staff and facilities - or contracting out feral cat management - would probably cost the government more than it has been giving annually to AAHS ($84,000 in FY08, $94,000 in FY09 and possibly $102,000 in upcoming FY10). Local feral cat policy “in the field” - much discussed lately as proponents of the Trap-Neuter-Release strategy have become more active - would not change without changes to county ordinances, but Animal Control would be responsible for taking in, holding and euthanizing feral cats - as well as renting out traps to citizens wishing to rid their property of ferals - rather than AAHS.

Mayor Heidi Davison says ACC Commissioners’ initial response to the proposal was “a mixed bag,” and says that she still seeks to understand the proposal better. If AAHS chooses to relinquish its county funding, though, it will likely relinquish its contractual obligations, too. Schultz says her organization is committed to helping the ACC government manage a smooth transition over the next year. As for its physical headquarters, AAHS intends to relocate to its present spay/neuter clinic on Mars Hill Road in Oconee County.

Ben Emanuel

ben@flagpole.com

Mittens, A Special Case

Mittens is an adorable cat with white paws and soft gray fur. She is a 4 year old rescue who loves attention and is happy sitting on a lap,"making biscuits" and purring. She also enjoys playing with her mouse toy and "talking" to everyone. Her playful personality can be a bit intense at times, so this cat would be happiest in a family without young children or other pets. Mittens is FIV/FLV negative; current on rabies vax; current on feline distemper; spayed, and declawed.

Mittens has had a rough life! Her original owners abandoned her outside to fend for herself with a rough crowd of tomcats. Even worse, they did this AFTER having her spayed and declawed! A Good Samaritan, not realizing she was declawed, fed her outside for years until falling ill with a brain tumor. She then called Cat Zip Alliance to find a permanent indoor home for Mittens. Unfortunately, things do get a little worse. Mittens was fostered by a wonderful couple for almost 5 months but she wasn't an ideal fit due to her possessive personality. Mittens wants lots and lots of love and gets a little jealous when other pets or children take attention away from her :( She wasn't able to be adopted out at the local humane society, either, because she doesn't like cages (who does?) and would get very upset about being put in one. Now, she's back with Cat Zip Alliance, looking for a permanent 1-cat household to love and accept all her quirks!

E-mail kittycrusadersofathens@gmail for more information on adopting Mittens.

Crazy Critters: FIV cat proves sweet, relaxed

Media Credit: LESLEY ONSTOTT Ming, an FIV-positive cat, at his owner's home on Wednesday. [Click to enlarge]

by COURTNEY SMITH

3/23/09 [Red and Black]

Ming the cat may be infected with FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus); but, he doesn't let that stop him from living a life of relaxation, love and a little bit of modeling.

"We put him in a Russian fur hat, and he is just so tolerant and sweet that he just sat on the bed and let us dress him up and have a photo shoot taking pictures," owner Jennifer Roberts, a 21-year-old English major from Warner Robins, said. "He didn't even move and just sat there and purred."

According to Roberts, Ming's purr of approval isn't only reserved for his dashing Russian photos that adorn their mantle. It has been a regular sound around the house she shares with roommate Jessica Stewart, 21, since they adopted Ming about a month ago.

"If you are around him or in the next room, he will always want to be right next to you and loves for you to just sit and stroke his head and neck, and he will just purr and be really chill," Ming's co-owner and roommate Stewart, an international affairs and economics major from Alpharetta, said.

"Because he was found outside by Campus Cats, you would think he would be skittish and scared all of the time, but he is just the opposite and very appreciative of having a home and people to pet him and spend time with him."

But, having Ming casually lounge around the house and run to greet them when they come home is not the only surprising quirk the roommates have embraced since adopting Ming from Campus Cats in January.

"There is kind of a stigma around AIDS, and at first we were wondering if he was going to die in like a year, or be really expensive to take care of ... but after we learned more about it, we found out he is really just a normal cat," Roberts said.

"It doesn't have any effect on his life other than having to take some medication to keep his immune system healthy."

Ming's medication is added to his wet food every day on alternating weeks. According to Roberts, the only other effect the disease has on Ming is that he's not allowed to go outside. This restriction prevents Ming from spreading the disease to other cats.

"He can only spread the disease to other cats through deep bite wounds, but he cant make humans sick at all," Roberts said.

"We kind of picked him because he had FIV, but he is just so sweet. And I have had a lot of cats, and they will usually just give you an 'eat shit' look, but Ming will come when you call his name, and he is just so sweet."

Editor's Note: Each week, reporter Courtney Smith will profile a quirky pet that belongs to someone on campus. This is the third installment in the series. If you or someone you know has a unique pet you'd like the University to know about, e-mail Courtney Smith at c5s@uga.edu.

Wildlife Biologist Creates “Campus Cats” Program at University of Georgia

March 19, 2009 : 3:19 PM [Published online by the Best Friends Network]

TNR working on campuses across the nation

By Stephanie Rommel, Best Friends Network Volunteer

Kelly A. Bettinger is a strong and often outspoken advocate for the proven technique of TNR (trap, neuter, return) as the best humane answer to the overpopulation of feral cats.

This may not seem unusual, except Bettinger is a Certified Wildlife Biologist and is employed as the Collections Manager of the University of Georgia Herbarium. With more than 14 years of experience, her work focuses on avian research, bird community surveying and monitoring.

And, Bettinger loves cats too!

Cat Zip Alliance
She is one of three cofounders of Cat Zip Alliance (CZA), a nonprofit umbrella organization for Campus Cats, Kitty Crusaders and The Barn Cat Program.

Campus Cats helps feral cats on the University campus through its TNR program and Bettinger is its program coordinator. Students adopt or bring cats and kittens to the campus, and when they leave, some abandon them causing a cat overpopulation issue, a dilemma shared by many college campuses across the country.

Kitty Crusaders provides advice and information to people who want to humanely help a particular cat or colony of cats in Athens-Clarke County. The Barn Cat Program keeps a working list of farms, horse stables or other safe outdoor shelters. The barn owners volunteer to accept and care for two or three young sterilized cats that need homes.

One Kitten Started It All
For Bettinger, it began in 2006 with an innocuous email concerning a kitten left at the main library. Of course, she put food out, the mama cat and kittens showed up, she trapped the little group, and it all snowballed from there.

She recalls one muggy July evening lying flat on her stomach for nearly an hour halfway in a concrete sewer-opening near a sidewalk at the student center…mosquitoes and ants biting, sweat dripping down her nose…trying to coax a five-week-old kitten closer. Bettinger already had the mom cat in a trap next to her, hoping the kitten would see the mom and come near so she could grab him.

Suddenly, Bettinger says, the sidewalk filled with a well-dressed crowd leaving a lecture. “At first, most gave me a wide berth, not really looking at me, until one brave person asked what I was doing. After I told her, she placed a $20 bill next to me and wished me luck.”

A few minutes later, she collected the kitten, pulled herself out of the sewer and found about $50 in bills scattered around her (the sewer kitten is now grown and living with a UGA graduate in Tennessee).

Now Campus Cats is sustained by yearly fundraising efforts. Bettinger explains that there is "so much to do to help the enormous population of ferals." She adds, “I just had to put boundaries on this—so all I am willing to oversee is Campus Cats. Otherwise, I would be totally overwhelmed.”

Declining Number of Cats Means Success
They adopted out 56 cats and kittens in 2007; 45 in 2008. In 2009 they have adopted out four. Declining numbers mean success!

The UGA Campus Cats is following in the footsteps of similar university community cat programs, according to Bettinger. Stanford University has the oldest such program in the United States with its Stanford Cat Network. Begun in 1989, the cat population was 1,500. Today approximately 200 cats live on campus.

The Campus Cat Coalition at the University of Texas-Austin has seen great results with its 13-year-old TNRM (trap, neuter, return, manage) program. No new litters of kittens have been born there in the past eight years.

Texas A&M University began its AFCAT (Aggie Feral Cat Alliance of Texas) program in 1998. Their program has become a beneficial educational tool for Texas A&M veterinarian and wildlife sciences students.

Putting on her biologist hat, Bettinger believes "managing feral cats through TNR is the best way to reduce impacts on wildlife. I consider my position a realistic one that takes into account public opinion and economics. The opposition just wants them rounded up and killed using tax payer dollars."

In a study conducted by Alley Cat Allies, more than 80% of Americans surveyed voted to let feral cats live instead of trap and kill. The economics behind trap and kill is simply not there, Bettinger feels. Women won’t hold bake sale fundraisers to pay for killing cats. TNR is the only choice.

At the University of Georgia two-thirds of the Athens campus is now under control through the commitment of Bettinger’s Campus Cats. Her goal is to reach the point where no kittens are born, and all that is necessary is to care for and maintain the remaining feral cat population.

How You Can Help:

• To find out more about all the programs within Cat Zip Alliance visit www.catzip.org and learn how you can help or form a campus cat program.

• Caring For Feral Cats, a simple guide to caring for feral cats in your neighborhood: why trap/neuter/return works; how to obtain low-cost surgeries; the trapping and release process; and ongoing care.

• Hiding in Plain Sight, this article from the May/June 2008 issue of Best Friends magazine provides an overview of trap/neuter/return (TNR) as a means for humanely controlling feral cat populations. A sidebar addresses the issue of feral cats and birds.

• Join the Feral Cat Campaign on the Best Friends Network.

Photo of Kelly Bettinger by Pete Bettinger
Photo of feral by Stephanie Rommel
Stock main photo by Clay Myers, Best Friends Staff

Posted by Cheri Moon, Best Friends Staff

Best Friends Animal Society Supports CZA!

Best Friends Animal Society recently showed their support for CZA by publishing an article on their website requesting that BFAS members contact Athens-Clarke County government officials to ask for their support in revising the ordinance making it illegal to practice TNR. Read the article by clicking HERE. We also encourage you to join the Georgia Best Friends Network at georgia.bestfriends.org.

Please follow BFAS' lead and contact the officials noted below promoting the beneficial aspects of TNR:

Mayor Heidi Davison
235 Wells Drive
Athens, GA 30606
Phone Numbers: (706) 546-9643 (h) / (706) 613-3010 (w)
E-mail: davison@athensclarkecountyga.gov

District 1 Commissioner Doug Lowry
190 Hancock Lane
Athens, GA 30605
Phone Number: 706-613-8443
E-mail: lowry@athensclarkecountyga.gov

District 2 Commissioner Harry Sims
170 Cone Drive
Athens, GA 30601
Phone Number: (706) 546-1683
E-mail: sims@athensclarkecountyga.gov

District 3 Commissioner George C. Maxwell
P.O. Box 7073
Athens, GA 30604
Phone Number: (706) 208-0686
E-mail: maxwell@athensclarkecountyga.gov

District 4 Commissioner Alice Kinman
323 Milledge Terrace
Athens, GA 30606
Phone Number: (706) 613-6668
E-mail: kinman@athensclarkecountyga.gov

District 5 Commissioner David Lynn
226 Hill Street
Athens, GA 30601
Phone Numbers: (706)369-0458 (h) / (706)542-6581 (w)
E-mail: lynn@athensclarkecountyga.gov

District 6 Commissioner Ed Robinson
255 Deerfield Road
Bogart, GA 30622
Phone Number: (706) 254-8883
E-mail: robinson@athensclarkecountyga.gov

District 7 Commissioner Kathy Hoard
248 Springdale Street
Athens, GA 30606
Phone Numbers: (706) 353-1918
E-mail: hoard@athensclarkecountyga.gov

District 8 Commissioner Andy Herod
315 Brookwood Drive
Athens, GA 30605
Phone Number: 706-543-0281
E-Mail: herod@athensclarkecountyga.gov

District 9 Commissioner Kelly Girtz
562 Pulaski Street
Athens, GA 30601
Phone Numbers: 706-369-9457
E-Mail: girtz@athensclarkecountyga.gov

District 10 Commissioner Mike Hamby
125 Jennings Mill Parkway #3312
Athens, GA 30606
Phone Number: (706) 338-3970
E-mail: hamby@athensclarkecountyga.gov