No More Homeless Pets Forum April 12 2004 Community Programs for Feral Cats

How do you get started? Manage volunteers and equipment? Find local vets to help? Get the word out? Jan Raven of AzCATs and Chris Whyle of the Homeless Cat Management Team are answering your questions this week about how to launch and manage a successful program to help feral cats where you live.

Questions

How to handle friendly strays
Getting volunteers to help with trapping and transporting
Getting more experienced vets
Sources for funding a feral cat program
Finding recovery space
Agreements with animal control on handling eartipped ferals entering the shelter
Tracking costs and inventory
Setting volunteer protocols and training
Determining whether to pay vets and how much
Leadership structure
What has worked and what hasn't
To test or not to test (and vaccinate)
Showing health departments the benefit of your program
How to set goals for a feral program

How to handle friendly strays

Question from Ann:

How do you handle the cats that come in that are obviously friendly strays and kittens? Specifically I am interested in knowing
a) if you place them into an adoption program or do you return them back out?
b) do you eartip them if you don't know if they are going back out or into an adoption program at time of surgery?
c) how you ensure they are not someone's pet cats that they either tried to sneak in or who was trapped accidentally while out roaming?

Do you worry about liability with an owner getting mad because you altered and eartipped his cat? We just had a situation where a caretaker was trapping ferals and brought this one in a trap so we eartipped. It turns out he was sneaking in his neighbor's cat who was really upset by the eartip and badmouthed our program even though we told them about the eartip in advance!

Response from Jan:

a) if you place them into an adoption program or do you return them back out?

AzCATs has an agreement with a limited admission shelter, the Arizona Animal Welfare League (AAWL) to take tame cats or kittens from us that can be placed for adoption. They are not always able to take all the tame cats or kittens that we have, however. If they cannot take them we return them to the caregiver. AzCATs gives a one page flyer to the caregiver, which lists other local, limited admission shelters if the caregiver has an interest in trying to find adoptive homes for tame cats or kittens.

AzCATs set three organizational priorities to guide our decision-making process in a variety of circumstances. Those are:

First Priority: To humanely end the breeding cycle.
Second Priority: To save the lives of as many cats as possible.
Last Priority: To find safe, loving indoor-only homes for outdoor cats.

Tame cat in the street - we sterilize it. Priority one accomplished. If AAWL does not have room for it, the cat is returned it to the caregiver. That serves our second priority in a couple ways. First, the cat is not at risk of being euthanized at an open admission shelter for lack of space. Second, it isn't taking up space at one of those shelters thereby putting other tame cats at risk of being euthanized for lack of space.

b) do you eartip them if you don't know if they are going back out or into an adoption program at time of surgery?

Yes we eartip them at the time of surgery if we don't know. At our high volume spay days we have the luxury of doing what we call "a slight tip" when we feel the cat or kitten might go into an adoption program later.

c) how you ensure they are not someone's pet cats that they either tried to sneak in or who was trapped accidentally while out roaming?

AzCATs sends a letter to each caregiver as they are placed on our list. One of the things we advise them is that we may not return tame cats to them. I think that that reduces the risk that they will send their tame cat to us intentionally. However, I am certain that we are lied to on occasion, and I don't care.

As to owned cats who might accidentally be trapped, we rely on the caregivers to know the cats that they are feeding. Cats with current identification can be returned. Also, once again, I really don't care all that much. Owners who let their cats roam outside without current identification run the risk of all manner of hazards - dogs, cars, TNR groups. If we sterilize an owned cat and return it to the street, I believe we have just improved the condition of the cat.

Do you worry about liability with an owner getting mad because you altered and eartipped his cat?

No. It has happened to us before, too. We have been threatened with lawsuits and with being reported to the police for animal abuse. Anyone can sue anyone for anything at any time. Anyone can file a report with the police alleging you have committed a crime. That doesn't mean that they will succeed. Interestingly, this question is one reason why TNR organizations struggle with the idea that companion animals not be viewed as property. Under the current law, assuming a successful lawsuit damages (financial recover) are going to be extremely limited.

We just had a situation where a caretaker was trapping ferals and brought this one in a trap so we eartipped and it turns out he was sneaking in his neighbor's cat who was really upset by the eartip and badmouthed our program even though we told them about the eartip in advance!

You are going to be badmouthed by some people. It is inevitable. If you have a good reputation and clear policies and procedures you can point to, like warning them of eartipping in advance, you can weather it.

Response from Chris:

Homeless Cat Management Team has a very narrow focus - we spay/neuter/vaccinate homeless cats. We have no adoption program, and all cats who come through our program are returned to their colonies. Eartipping is mandatory for every cat and kitten, friendly or not.

If a caretaker accidentally traps someone's pet who is unneutered or unspayed, we perform a valuable service for the owner by sterilizing that cat for free. We educate our caretakers to inform their neighbors when they are trapping, to avoid trapping someone's pet. But pet cats can multiply just like ferals, and if they come in unneutered as an accidental trapping, they don't leave that way!

One of the biggest problems we've had is limiting our resources to free-roaming cats, and discouraging pet cats from coming through our clinics. Eartipping discourages some, but many people don't care, because we are the only source for FREE spay/neuter in our area.

We have a very strict screening program, which every potential participant has to go through before we accept him or her as a "registered colony caretaker." We have a volunteer whose only job is to screen people and approve them for the program. And a paragraph in our introductory letter lets caretakers know that if they bring pet cats through our program and get "busted" for it, they will no longer be eligible for our services.

As far as liability is concerned, you would have to see what the laws are in your area to see whether unidentified outdoor cats are classified as "property" or not. If an outdoor cat in our area does not have a collar or identification, the cat is not deemed an "owned" or pet cat, and the "owner" of that cat would not have any recourse if a caretaker trapped the cat and we spayed or neutered the cat.

There is a low-cost spay/neuter program for pet cats (and dogs) through a local shelter in our area, and we refer any calls about pet cat sterilizations to that program. They refer all free-roaming cat spay/neuter requests to our program. If there is a program like that in your area, you should consider partnering with them in some way, even if it's only trading referrals. That will also help you focus on free-roaming cats.

Getting volunteers to help with trapping and transporting

Question from Sharon:

How do you get so many volunteers to actually help with the trapping and transporting? The majority of calls we get are people wanting us or someone else to handle the problem. They are generally willing to take the cats back and continue feeding but want no part of actually doing the trapping and getting them to the clinics. We are also concerned about whether we will be able to get enough of people to help ensure that the traps are not left unattended and that we get the traps back.

Response from Jan:

Too bad about what they want and don't want is my opinion. AzCATs lets caregivers know right up front that if they are capable of doing the work they need to be doing it.

We let them know that the trap depot manager we will send them will show them what they need to do. We have written instructions for them to take away from the depot. On those instructions we have a telephone number for someone that they can call if they have questions when they are trapping.

We remind caregivers that our role is to help them help the cats. If they won't (as opposed to physically cannot) do the work, then they are going to wait 3 to 6 months, through a lot more kittens, before we will be able to get a volunteer to help them.

Often after they wait awhile, caregivers call us back and tell us that they think they can do the work after all. Encouraging caregivers to take responsibility for doing the work has an added benefit, because very often those individuals like it and they become some of our very best volunteer trappers/transporters.

Caregivers sometimes have legitimate transport issues - work hours, size of vehicle. Those of us with large vehicles sometimes serve as drop off points for caregivers.

One more thing, our instructions specify that the caregivers have to disinfect the traps and trap covers with a bleach water solution before they return them. It is very rare for them not to comply.

AzCATs has caregivers sign a trap loan agreement. Our traps are individually and uniquely numbered for many reasons. One reason is to help us track the traps that go out to the caregivers. Those numbers are written on the agreement. The agreement says that they will be charged $50 for lost, stolen or damaged traps.

You are dealing with people. You will lose traps. We have. We have kept it to a minimum over the years by having people sign the loan agreement and by doing a quarterly trap inventory. Once a quarter we have each of our trap depots account for all their traps. Occasionally a trap will not have been returned and it slips by the trap depot manager. We can then trace it back and get it returned.

AzCATs houses over 500 traps in several trap depots in our area. We understand that this can be a challenge.

Response from Chris:

Homeless Cat Management Team takes an entirely different approach to the trapping/transporting situation. We do not have trappers/transporters who are supplied by our organization. All applicants for our services must trap and transport their own cats. We send out a packet to each newly approved program participant, which educates them about the basics of TNR, how to properly care for a free-roaming cat colony, trapping instructions and an intro letter explaining our clinics and how to participate. We felt from the very beginning that it is better to teach people how to solve their problem than to do all of the work for them. We provide the spay/neuter/vaccination service, and the caretakers do the rest. After finishing their own colonies, some of these people help others in their neighborhoods.

We rarely get calls in which people absolutely want us to "get rid of" the cats. If we do get those sorts of calls, we explain that "getting rid of the cats" is not what we do, but here is what we can help YOU to do.

Don't think "if we don't eliminate EVERY obstacle to spaying/neutering free-roaming cats, people won't get their cats spayed/neutered." In the beginning we operated a free trap rental program for registered colony caretakers. We discontinued that service last year because we were spending a fortune replacing traps that were not returned to us. We were worried that discontinuing this service would deter people from bringing in cats to our clinics. We needn't have worried. We provided them with information on buying traps (or borrowing them from other agencies), and we facilitate the sale of the traps to other caretakers after all of the cats in their colony are sterilized. We have seen no drop-off in the requests for spay/neuter (in fact requests have continued to increase as more people hear about our program). W can spend more money on spaying/neutering than on operating a trap rental program.

You are offering an extremely valuable service by spaying/neutering cats for free. Most people realize this and are more than willing to do their part to trap and get the cats to clinics. Perhaps you receive a lot of calls where the people expect you to trap, transport AND spay, neuter, and vaccinate, because they know that you will provide that service. You may find that teaching people how to help themselves will help your organization focus on spay/neuter and will help your volunteers avoid burnout.

Getting more experienced vets

Question from Elizabeth:

We have a monthly free clinic for ferals staffed by volunteers. How can we attract experienced vets to volunteer? We have many young vets right out of school, who don't have much surgery experience. I think one reason they volunteer is to get surgery time, which they might not get as junior staffers at their home clinics. While we appreciate their work very much, we are able to do so many more cats when we have experienced vets, and I'm sure it's better for the cats to have shorter surgeries. Any ideas?

Response from Jan:

Target veterinarians that are already working with other rescue organizations in their day-to-day practice. They are already predisposed to want to help.

It has also been AzCATs experience that, at least initially, women veterinarians were more likely to help. We have several male veterinarians working with us at our high volume spay days, but in general females are more likely to have grown up socialized with that nurturing, helping thing going on.

We pay our vets an hourly rate of $40 to $45 at our spay days. It is almost like volunteering their time, but they can make a couple hundred bucks for an afternoon of work.

Talk to the veterinarians that already work with you. They may know other vets that would want to help. We have had our vets bring others on Board for us.

AzCATs has a local spay/neuter hotline. The people from that organization really know a lot about the veterinarians that they work with. They helped us find veterinarians willing to work with us. If there is an organization like that in your community, ask them about vets that might help you.

Response from Chris:

Most experienced veterinarians have their own practices, and some may work for the larger VCA-type animal hospitals with several vets on staff. Private practice veterinarians are also business owners, and we've found that to recruit these experienced vets, you must consider what their personal and business needs are.

Most private practice veterinarians would benefit from a larger client base. Dr. Levy's study on characteristics of free-roaming cats and their caretakers reports that most people who care for free-roaming cats also have cats (and dogs) as pets. The people served by your free feral clinics should be encouraged to patronize the practices of veterinarians who volunteer for your clinics (and let the vets know WHY they are there). And you should let the vets whom you approach know that your program can be a source of new clients (pets, not ferals). If you have a newsletter or website, it may help to list the veterinarians who volunteer for your organization (with their permission, of course). Ask the people who benefit from your clinics to approach their regular veterinarian about your program. Or get the veterinarian's name and contact him/her yourself, mentioning the name of the client who referred you.

Another benefit of participating in your feral clinic (and bringing along their techs, as well) is the opportunity to gain knowledge of how to safely work with ferals. Many vets shy away from accepting feral cats as clients due to the perceived dangers to staff and facility. If they learned the proper way to handle ferals (i.e. sedating in the trap before handling), this could lead to a larger client base as well.

It is important to hold your monthly clinics on days and times when veterinarians do not have clinic hours. Homeless Cat Management Team holds our free clinics on Sundays, and offers two four-hour shifts (8AM-12noon / 12 noon - 4 PM).

It is important that your program is well known in the veterinary community. If you publish a newsletter, send a copy to each veterinarian in your area. Keep them up to date on the amount of cats you have spayed/neutered, and the dates on which you will be holding clinics. If the vets in your area belong to a local AVMA chapter, you might want to sponsor a meeting and do a small seminar on TNR and how it benefits the health of not only free-roaming cats in your community, but their indoor-outdoor client cats as well. This is a very good way to address a large number of veterinarians at one time. Homeless Cat Management Team places an ongoing ad in our local AVMA chapter's monthly newsletter, and we have recruited several vets from that source. Take a tip from the pharmaceutical companies - have small, inexpensive memo pads printed (perhaps you can get them donated by a local copy shop or printer) with your message and phone number printed on the top, and give a pad or two to each vet in your community. If you keep your name in front of the vets, some may volunteer out of curiosity!

Homeless Cat Management Team has a volunteer whose duty it is to recruit new vets. She routinely mails out informational packets to new veterinarians in the area, and places calls to vets who have not yet volunteered with us. She doesn't bug them, but she lets them know we are still providing services to free-roaming cats and that we still need veterinary help.

Although vets who volunteer do not expect monetary payment, they really appreciate small tokens of your appreciation like gift certificates to local restaurants (donated, of course), logo items like T-shirts, and yearly framed certificates of appreciation they can hang in their offices. None of these items cost much, but they show that you appreciate the veterinarians' efforts.

One of the best ways of getting new veterinarians is word of mouth. Each new veterinarian you recruit (even the less experienced ones) knows or will meet others in their profession. If you provide a happy and fulfilling environment in which to spay/neuter cats, the word will get out. We have had many vets bring their friends who are also vets to our clinics.

Keep in mind that those less experienced vets will increase their skill and surgical speed over time. And they will most likely be loyal to your program because you gave them the opportunity to get the surgical experience they could not get anywhere else.

Sources for funding a feral cat program

Question from Michelle:

I wonder about how you fund your programs? In my experience, I have found people willing to give donations to help, but when there are so many unowned cats to do, it puts a real strain on the budget. We've also found some grant foundations won't fund feral cats. So are your programs self-sustaining?

Response from Chris:

Homeless Cat Management Team partners with the Western PA Humane Society. They loan us the use of their clinic on alternate Sundays, and we recruit volunteers, volunteer vets, and perform all the other tasks of scheduling, etc. When we first started out, the Humane Society donated all of the supplies we needed to perform our surgeries and even provided one of their vet tech employees to help us out. As our program grew, we took over more and more of the expense of operations, and now, aside from the loan of the facility, we are totally self-supporting. We offer our services free to colony caretakers, but let all of our participants know that we need/accept donations to sustain our program. In our area, few private practice veterinarians will deal with strays and ferals, so people are very grateful that our program exists. Most caretakers donate money when they bring in cats. On the average, donations cover the costs of our clinics, plus or minus a few hundred dollars each clinic.

From the very beginning we developed a mailing list of caretakers, volunteers and other interested people, and each year we send out an appeal. I would strongly suggest keeping a mailing list database, and add ANYONE who shows interest in your program. We increase our database by tabling at community gatherings, fairs, etc. We also benefit from an Animal Walk that is held each year. The proceeds from the Walk are divided among six animal welfare agencies in the Pittsburgh area. A local bar/lounge holds a benefit for HCMT each year (we spayed/neutered several barn cats for the owner). We also have a fund-raising table at each clinic where we sell logo items (embroidered T-shirts, etc), catnip toys made by volunteers, and raffle off donated large-ticket items.

Every time our program is featured in the newspaper, we get donations from the public (and of course, more people who call to use our spay/neuter services). It is important to get the word out about your program through the media. Not only will you gain greater acceptance in the community, you will find more volunteers and more people willing to donate to your organization.

There ARE animal welfare grantors out there who will fund spay/neuter programs for free-roaming cats. The best resource I found for finding grantors is The Foundation Center in NYC, which has cooperating agencies in many cities; in Pittsburgh it is the Carnegie Library. They host proposal writing classes and offer assistance in searching their GIANT databases of funders. On their database you can also research which agencies around the country like your own have gotten grant funding, and from whom. Check out http://www.fdncenter.org/. I found their resources enlightening and very encouraging! You can also look in your own back yard - you are performing a valuable community service, and many local municipalities have grant money to fund community service organizations. Alley Cat Allies also has several articles on their website under Resources/Organizing and Advocacy on how to raise more funds for your program (www.alleycat.org).

Response from Jan:

AzCATs will be 5 years old in June of this year. Like many young organizations we need to do a lot more in the fundraising department. However, I have found that being creative about how we spend our money is at least as important as how we get it.

AzCATs currently has 4 different ways that we get feral cats sterilized. We make certain that caregivers who are able to donate the most, are the ones that use our most expensive programs. Those caregivers able to donate the least and to do the least amount of work themselves go through our least expensive program.

One way that ferals go to the vet is by going directly to a veterinary clinic during the regular work week. Those vets give us a discount on spay/neuter but it can cost us up to $55 per cat if the cat is a cryptorchid male or very pregnant female. We call this our Fast Track program.

Caregivers that take their cats through our Fast Track program must be able to do the trapping and transport themselves, and they must pay a minimum donation of $30 each cat. The donation is $30 regardless of the sex of the cat. To some extent then we "make money" on standard neuters which helps fund the more expensive spays.

The second way feral cats go to the vet is through our one Sunday a month high volume spay day where up to 5 veterinarians sterilize up to 200 cats. AzCATs pays the veterinarians an hourly rate of $40 to $45, and we supply all the materials used during the day. AzCATs volunteers do all clinic work aside from the surgery. We call that Mission Nip & Tip.

Caregivers needing the most assistance and those able to pay the least are sent to Mission Nip & Tip. There is no minimum donation requirement. However, almost all of them give at least some donation.

Up to 4 days a month one vet clinic does what we call a mini-spay day (mini-Mission Nip & Tip). The hosting vet is paid $25 for each female cat and $10 for each male cat. We use her supplies. AzCATs provides a few volunteers to help at the clinic. When we have a second vet at mini-Mission Nip & Tip that vet is paid the hourly rate, and we supply the hosting vet with her gloves to make up for the second vet's use of the hosting vet's supplies. (A fourth way is a variation on this theme and not important to this discussion.)

Generally we try to hold the line at a minimum donation of $10 per cat for caregivers that go through our mini-Mission Nip & Tip days.

In my opinion it is very important to always ask caregivers for donations. We ask about ability to donate the first time we talk to a caregiver - that helps us with our scheduling. If caregivers go to one of our trap depots, the trap depot manager will know how much of a donation that they are to collect before traps are dispersed. Volunteers that trap and clinic check in and check out volunteers know when they need to ask for a donation and how much the caregiver has pledged.

The last time I checked AzCATs received roughly 70% of our funding through the donations of individuals. Of that 70% about half comes from caregivers that we are helping with cats. The remainder comes from direct appeals, a few donation jars, and the like.

AzCATs also gets some funding from those foundations like PETsMART Charities that do give money to spay/neuter feral cats. A small portion of our funding comes from various other sources.

Finding recovery space

Question from a member:

Our caretakers are really good, but we are in a dilemma about how to deal with recovery. We are located in a large city where a lot of people don't have garages or basements and recovery is a really big problem. We have thought about trying construction trailers or renting space but both are expensive. Any thoughts?

Response from Chris:

I would certainly encourage individual caretakers to keep the cats overnight in a bathroom or other easy to clean, pet-free area in their homes, but if that is not possible, you might consider the following options. Since your TNR program is performing a community service, perhaps you could convince municipal authorities to let you use one of their facilities for a 24-hour holding period after surgery.

You didn't say how many cats would need a place to recover, but most communities have a fire hall, rooms for council meetings and community gatherings, or perhaps an empty, unused building that you could use for that short time. Many animal welfare agencies have meeting rooms. If you point out to your local humane society that what you are doing will result in less cats and kittens entering the shelter, perhaps they would let you use a room in the shelter for recovering cats. Of course you would have to guarantee that you would leave it cleaner than you find it (with no left-over eau-du-male cat smells!).

Other non-profits in your area may be able to help with space. They certainly know the value of spending donor dollars on the primary mission. Your local Health Department may also have some suggestions, or other social service agencies. Many free-roaming cat caretakers are elderly, and local social service agencies frequently run across people who need help controlling the population of the cats they feed. Consider partnering with a social service agency, trading spay/neuter services for the use of a room or building. Creative partnering works to solve many problems. Think of whom your program benefits, schedule a meeting to discuss these benefits to the community or agency, and see if they can provide you with the help you need.

Response from Jan:

Depending on the weather conditions it might be possible to recover the cats in a covered back patio area - assuming that the area is secure and safe. AzCATs has done that in the past. If it is hot we block the sun of course and have used fans to cool them. If it is really hot we have also wetted down the trap covers so that the fans blowing on them would act as an evaporative cooler. If it is a cooler evening we group the traps together and throw old blankets on the tops of the trap to help keep warmth in.

Additional ideas include recovering cats overnight in my van, again assuming a safe area and the right weather conditions. Is it possible to ask the veterinarians to allow you to leave the cats overnight somewhere at their facility? If a caregiver has only one or two cats to recover a bathtub is a great place for a trap or two. Actually any room that can be closed off from other animals in the house and that doesn't have carpeting can be used for a recovery area. Throw a tarp on the floor, add some newspaper to absorb urine, etc. and move the traps in for the night.

Tell everyone you know that you need somewhere to recover cats. Someone might have a space that they are willing to donate for your use. That's how AzCATs got its office space.

Agreements with animal control on handling eartipped ferals entering the shelter

Question from a member:

Do you keep track of your colonies? If so, how do you do it? And how do you work with your local animal control if they take in stray cats to make sure that none are eartipped cats from your colonies? Do you have some sort of agreement with them?

Our local humane society is starting to accept stray cats (they haven't previously), and we are concerned that a lot of our eartipped cats could end up in the shelter. We are considering Microchipping, so we can have the colonies registered to us. Then we'd ask the humane society to call us if they get one of our cats. We will know what colony they go to so they can be returned.

Response from Chris:

We require our participating colony caretakers to fill out a colony form when they register with us, and to update it every time they bring in cats to be sterilized. It lists the colony name, location, caretaker name and phone number, and each cat who has come through our program. The sex of the cat, color, spay/neuter date and any comments the caretaker has about the cat is recorded. We keep these colony forms and make them available at each clinic for updating.

When an ear-tipped cat comes into any one of the three Pittsburgh animal shelters, the shelter is asked to notify HCMT. They tell us the location where the cat was trapped, and we do our best to find out which colony the cat came from. We notify the caretaker, who can then go to the shelter and reclaim the cat. We have had some cases where the ear-tipped cat was friendly and adoptable, and the shelter has asked if they can place the cat up for adoption.

We had a meeting with the head of the City of Pittsburgh Animal Control last year. Although they didn't have a problem with what we are doing, they said if they would return a cat to a caretaker after receiving a complaint and trapping the cat, they wouldn't be doing their job with respect to the complainant. However, the holding agency for Pittsburgh Animal Control is one of the local shelters, and they have allowed caretakers to come in and redeem their cats. The important thing for a caretaker to do when one of their cats is missing is to contact the shelters immediately to see if the cat was picked up by Animal Control or trapped by a neighbor and surrendered.

As a preventative measure, caretakers need to be educated on ways to reduce neighbor complaints about their ferals so that the cats are not at risk for the "cat-catcher." HCMT sends out educational literature from Alley Cat Allies to every caretaker who is approved for our program.

We were told by our local agencies that they cannot scan unfriendly cats in traps for a microchip. Avid (one of the microchip manufacturers) does have a wand that can be inserted into a trap (you have to cut a hole in the trap for the wand to fit) to scan a feral cat. You should check with your local humane society and Animal Control to see if they would be willing to scan. Perhaps if your organization would purchase a wand for each agency, they would agree to scan ferals.

The best thing you can do is keep good records of all cats who go through your program, then educate caretakers about what to do if a cat goes missing. Also educate local agencies about what an ear-tip means, and meet with any local animal control agencies to see how you can work together to save cats lives.

Response from Jan:

AzCATs does not currently keep track of colonies that we have sterilized. The best that we do is break our statistics down by city. We are transitioning to a new database that is going to permit us to keep track of colonies after all the cats are sterilized.

We have two open admission shelters that accept feral cats, Maricopa County Animal Care and Control (AC&C) and the Humane Society.

AC&C makes an effort to train the employees in receiving to check cats that are brought to them in traps, for eartips. If the cat is eartipped, they explain the meaning to the person that brought the cat in. I know that, once they find out the cat is sterilized, some people have been willing to release the cat back where they trapped it. AC&C does not record the exact location that the cat was trapped so it is currently not possible to return feral cats unless eartipping is caught at the time of intake. AzCATs has no agreement with the Humane Society regarding feral cats.

I don't know how big the feral cat problem is in your community. Here it is a huge problem. Our goal is to TNR 6,000 cats this year. I wouldn't go to the added expense of microchipping if the sole reason for it was to act as insurance for the cats in this scenario.

As an aside, you might find that some colony caregivers are going to be very resistant to the idea of "registering" their colonies.

Tracking costs and inventory

Question from a member:

One area I'm struggling with a lot as coordinator of the clinic I am involved with is how to keep track of the costs and inventory. Because we do a MASH clinic and are using a donated vet office we are always rushing at the end of the day to put everything away and don't always get a good inventory. I am also trying to figure out our cost per clinic and our cost to run this for our next year since this is only our first year, but we are having a really tough time figuring out how much stuff we go through with so many different vets and volunteers involved. How do you do it?

Response from Jan:

This was my position to some extent last year, particularly with regard to costs. What I finally ended up doing there was just tracking a year's worth of supply inventory costs. I divided the year's costs by the number of clinics that we had during the year. I used that amount as our per-clinic average additional cost for supplies. I just assumed that our beginning and ending inventories were roughly the same. Now I at least have a starting point and an amount that I can state when asked about our costs. Next year it will get a bit better.

AzCATs pays a vet tech $200 a month to handle our medical supply inventory and ordering. It isn't much money but it really isn't a huge amount of work for her. That has made our lives a lot simpler.

We had a lot of great ideas about the inventory tracking that are not fully implemented for one reason or another. We developed some great forms with the idea that each bin of supplies would be labeled with its contents. Then the inventory sheet would be on the inside of the lid. It would be filled out with the starting inventory and at the end of the clinic with the ending inventory. We have a separate master inventory of all supplies on hand whether taken to the clinic or not.

Example: Bin had 60 size 7 surgical gloves at the start of the clinic, which is the amount we determined we would need to be safe. At the end of the clinic the bin had 30 size 7 surgical gloves. As not all our supplies are needed at every clinic our inventory control manager could then go back to the master inventory take 30 size 7 gloves from the master inventory, record the changes on the bin inventory for next time and the master inventory. Also, she'd determine at that time whether she'd need to order more size 7 gloves.

AzCATs takes everything to our high volume spay days right down to toilet paper and garbage bags. I used to be the one in charge of bringing the bins of toilet paper, paper towels, and 2 kinds of garbage bags. Determined to move on to more lofty pursuits I decided to delegate that function. Whenever I asked someone to do it I was met with things like "How many rolls of toilet paper do you need to bring?" "Where do you put the paper towels?" And so on - as if there was a hard and fast rule. No one seemed willing to accept "bring a bunch." I ended up writing a bullet point of toilet paper/paper towel bin procedures, totally arbitrary but it worked. With instructions in hand a volunteer was willing to take on that piece of the job.

Response from Chris:

One thing you did not say is whether you use your own supplies or whether drugs/surgical supplies are supplied by the vet offices and reimbursed by you. Either way, you still have to keep track of the supplies you use and know the cost of those supplies.

I know how it is at the end of a clinic. Everyone is exhausted, all you want to do is go home and pass out. But it is VERY important to take the time to inventory your supplies, especially if you need to plan for the next clinic!

To make inventory quicker and easier, create a form for each station, and list all of the consumable supplies. Separate paperwork from physical supplies. Get copies of the blank form and use a new sheet for each clinic. Have a beginning inventory column and an ending inventory column. For the first clinic in which you use the form, you should do a beginning AND ending count of your supplies. As long as you store your supplies in a secure place, at future clinics the ending inventory number can be carried over as the beginning inventory number for the next clinic. Have an "Order" column (or checkbox) after each row, so if you need to order something for the next clinic, whoever orders your supplies just has to look for the checkmark. Then you would have to add that amount of supplies to the beginning inventory of the next clinic.

If you have to, find a volunteer(s) who is detail oriented, and give that responsibility to her/him at the end of each clinic. Sorry, but we have not found any easier way to keep track of our stuff.

Next, to figure out a budget, take it on a per cat basis. List everything you do for/to each cat and what quantity of the supply you use. For instance, Telazol to sedate cat, .3cc per 10 lbs; Torbugesic, .2cc per 10 lbs.; Penicillin, 1cc per 10 lbs. Using the Telazol as an example, and 10 lbs. as the average weight of a cat, divide the total amount of Telazol in a full bottle by .3cc to find out how many cats can be sedated with one bottle of Telazol. Then divide the price of a bottle of Telazol by that number of cats, and you will have a per-cat cost for Telazol. Do the same for rabies vaccines, penicillin, and any other drugs you use. Do the same for any other supplies (i.e. 1cc syringes, 2 per cat, .08 each = .16 per cat). Count anything you have to pay for: vet gloves, surgical drapes, blades, suture material, flea treatments, cotton applicators, silver nitrate sticks, etc., etc. Some things you may have to estimate. Then, if you pay your vets and vet techs, figure out the average number of cats you can do per hour, take your total salaries per hour, and divide by the amount of cats. Add that number to your drug/supplies cost. Don't forget to estimate a cost for clinic paperwork.

Try to think of everything you use. It helps to follow a cat through the clinic, and watch everything that is done for/to the cat, the supplies that are used, the quantity, and cost. Write it all down. Again, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to do these things, unless you can find an organization that has already done it, and use their figures.

Ask for help from your volunteers and your Board. Although this is not the most romantic aspect of running a clinic, it is very necessary.

Setting volunteer protocols and training

Question from Melanie:

How much training do you make your volunteers do to participate in a clinic? Do they have to go to an orientation or can they just come to their first clinic and jump in helping with some basic on the spot training? This is what we have been doing (in areas not requiring medical training, of course) but we recently have run into troubles with our new volunteers not following protocols, like wanting to reach into traps in recovery or hold the cute kittens even though we told them not to and that however cute, they are feral!

Also, we are finding that our volunteers don't really understand the issues like why we spay pregnant cats or what exactly TNR is. They came because they were involved with the local shelter and wanted to help or because a friend was volunteering. We wrote up a fact sheet answering some of these questions and send it out to volunteers, but it seems that we still have a few coming in and getting upset when they see an eartip or wondering why we are putting the cats back out.

Response from Jan:

We don't require enough training that's for sure. We have had some training sessions in the past and in an ideal world we would do that regularly, but I live in a world that is far from ideal. So we do it much like you do.

I'd definitely limit the number of new volunteers that come to a clinic on any one day. And we, too, limit new volunteers initially to the more basic functions like transport, which means getting the traps and the cats around the clinic itself. Volunteer staff at our clinics is scheduled. You can't just show up any old day that you want and work. If someone does, they may get a guided tour to orient them and an invitation to volunteer at the next clinic.

Each major area of the clinic has a team leader with a lot of experience. Then there is one overall clinic manager. When we had less experienced volunteers, we would always have a little pre-clinic speech about who was in charge of what and what some of the basic clinic rules were.

Volunteers must understand that they need to follow the rules and that team leaders have the authority to see that they do. I think you have to maintain a serious, professional atmosphere at the clinic. Sure it is fun and there is laughter, but there is also authority and structure. Volunteers that won't or can't follow the rules are asked not to return. It's always a good idea to have a copy of the clinic manual on hand each time.

In terms of finding that your volunteers don't really understand the issues, like why you spay pregnant cats or what TNR is, do you schedule the volunteer staff for the clinic? Is your organization fairly new to the area?

I think that you are on the right track by developing written policies that you distribute to the volunteers. AzCATs has written policies on the big issues like spaying pregnant cats (we do) and eartipping (we do whether the caregiver wants it or not). Another big problem area is the volunteer who wants to foster and tame kittens or even possibly "adopt" them on the spot. We make it clear that AzCATs does not have a foster or adoption program, so the kittens and cats either go back to the caregiver or to the shelter that works with us to intake tame cats or kittens. That's it. End of story!

Again I get back to the structure and authority issue. There have to be people in charge of the volunteers and enforcing the written policies of the organization. I'd take the time to explain the policies to them and the reasons behind those policies. Those that can't understand or abide by those polices need to find somewhere else to volunteer, whether within your organization or at another organization.

Response from Chris:

Homeless Cat Management Team holds a small orientation before each clinic for new volunteers. We provide an overview of our program in a short talk, and then we walk the new people through the clinic explaining each station and the duties performed there. This gives them an idea of where they would like to work. We also have a form that lists each volunteer/station duty and a short description, which the new people are asked to fill out and indicate their interests. We usually do not put the new volunteers to work at that initial clinic unless we are desperate, which happens occasionally! We put them on the list of people to be called for future clinics, and note their area of preference (i.e. admissions, prep, post-op, recovery, etc.).

We presently rely on our experienced volunteers at each station to teach the station duties to new volunteers. This is obviously not the best situation. Ideally we should have written protocols for every station, with detailed descriptions of each volunteer responsibility. We are working on that. Most of us are alike in the fact that time is a precious commodity, and we have to prioritize our "to do" lists! But the best-case scenario is a detailed, written protocol for each station along with a general volunteer brochure, which should be sent out to people when they first inquire about volunteering, before they come to a clinic. The general brochure should address points like "why do we ear-tip, and no, it doesn't hurt the cat" and "these cats may look a lot like your pet, Fluffy, when they're sleeping, but when they wake up they are more like Godzilla."

All volunteers must be made aware that clinic protocols are NOT negotiable, and that mistakes can be dangerous to them as well as injurious to the program and the organization. You must be very firm with volunteers, and insist that they follow your regulations, especially the ones regarding safety. Most volunteers, when they are told why a rule has been made and what could happen if that rule is not followed, will understand and abide by the rule. If a volunteer cannot or will not follow rules, that volunteer should be asked to leave the clinic.

Encourage and be open to suggestions from your volunteers, and if their suggestions are inappropriate, take the time to (nicely) explain why. Some of the most helpful updates to our station protocols have come from volunteers. Always take the time to say thank you to each and every volunteer at your clinic, EVERY clinic. If a volunteer does a particularly good job, take the time to praise her/him. A volunteer program can be challenging, but a well-managed volunteer corps allows many more cats to be sterilized with limited resources.

Determining whether to pay vets and how much

Question from Kim:

If the TNR group hires vets to come to the facility, do you have any suggestions on which is better for pay structure - so much per cat or so much per hour, which ever is more? How many can be done in a four hour time span with ample technician staff/volunteers, and how do you figure that number out?

Response from Jan:

AzCATs does it both ways depending on the circumstances. In our experience paying the vet an hourly rate is least expensive. However, to do that we have to be able to have enough volunteers available to do all the non-surgical work and we have to cart in bin after bin of supplies - that we have paid for.

Other considerations can warrant paying on a per cat basis. For example, one of our vets will close her clinic to other clients one day a week for us. Obviously that has to be worth her while so we pay her $25 per female and $10 per male cat. Right now she wants to do 50 cats. (A low number for her because of late term pregnancies.) We supply some volunteers; she pays vet techs and provides most of the supplies. AzCATs uses its own stock of things like penicillin, etc., which are used to treat minor medical issues during those days.

There are a lot of creative ways to work with the veterinarians to keep costs down and be fair to them at the same time.

In terms of how many cats can be done in a four hour time period, it depends. First you must have good staffing to be able to keep the vets working. A vet standing around waiting for a cat to sterilize is a very bad thing.

That said, when you are starting out ask the vets (or better yet their vet techs) how long it takes them to do a standard spay. Figure about 50 to 60% of the cats will be female. Factor in anything like the time of year when the female cats will be pregnant, or worse - very pregnant. Throw in a little wiggle room for problems. Then try to manipulate trapping the night before, so that you come in at just about that number or a bit higher, which causes a whole other set of problems.

Once you have a few spay days behind you, you will have a much better understanding of what each vet is capable of doing. Also, those vets will get faster as they have more experience with high volume spay days. AzCATs has 2 vets that work with us that are extremely fast. Others go at a more moderate pace. After each clinic I break down the numbers for each vet that worked. Here is an example from a recent clinic where ironically all 4 vets works 4 hours:

Dr. O: 12 spay; 0 neuter @ $40 per hour - $13.33*
Dr. R: 8 spay; 47 neuter @ $40 per hour - $2.91
Dr. S: 29 spay; 17 neuter @ $40 per hour - $3.48
Dr. L: 9 spay; 0 neuter @ $40 per hour - $17.78

*Per surgery cost regardless of sex.

I also include a note on each analysis about anything out of the ordinary that may have slowed the vets down. In this particular case there was nothing noted. However, we did have 29 pregnant cats at the clinic, many were late term. I'm sure that slowed the vets down.

Response from Chris:

Homeless Cat Management Team currently operates our free clinics with volunteer veterinarians. We are, however, exploring a low-cost clinic format in addition to our free spay/neuter clinics where we would pay our veterinarians and veterinary technicians and charge a fee for services. We have decided to pay an hourly rate to the veterinarians because we do not want them to suffer financially if there are a lot of pregnant cats, cryptorchid cats, or cats with other problems that would increase per-cat surgery time. We also do not want speed of surgeries to be the defining factor in our treatment of the cats.

In the past five years of clinics, we have worked with dozens of vets, and we've found that the speed at which a cat is spayed/neutered varies from vet to vet. On the average, our veterinarians can sterilize four cats per hour. This number takes into account pregnant cats (longer surgery time) and male cats (very short surgery time) and all cats in between. It also averages the very experienced, fast-neutering vets with the less experienced, slower ones. If you get a high percentage of males in a particular clinic, you can fix a lot more in one hour. If they are all pregnant females, you will fix a lot less. We cannot control the mix of sexes in the cats, so we use the average number. What you CAN do is note the speed (cats per hour) of each of your participating vets, and take that into account when scheduling cats.

In general, our formula for scheduling cats is: number of veterinarians x number of clinic hours multiplied by the average number of cats you can do per hour. That number is then divided by .75 (in non-pregnancy seasons) or .85 (during spring and mid-summer). This takes into account attrition (people signing up to bring four cats in and only being able to trap two or three). The resulting number is the number of cats we schedule for each clinic.

We have one surgical veterinary technician and one vet per table, and we have a prep station, manned by a vet tech and a helper, at which the cats are initially sedated, vaccines and antibiotics are administered, and the cats are shaved for surgery. We have volunteer transporters who carry the sedated cats from station to station. In addition we have volunteers who man our admissions station, post-op station and our recovery station.

You may be able to find out from your local AVMA chapter, or the national AVMA organization, what the average hourly pay scale is for veterinarians in your area. This would give you an idea of what you would need to pay to attract veterinarians to your program.

Leadership structure

Question from Sharon:

Can you talk about the structure of your clinics in terms of leadership? How many coordinators or team captains do you have and are all of them volunteers? In our case we have a few key people who come to every clinic. However, we are really struggling with getting team captains for each station, because we don't have the same volunteers at each clinic. Also, who are actually the decision makers overall for your program? Do you have a Board or steering committee or just a few people?

Response from Chris:

Homeless Cat Management Team is an all-volunteer organization. At our clinics, we try to have an experienced volunteer or vet tech at each station. This person functions as the Team Leader and answers any questions that less experienced volunteers may have. Our Volunteer Coordinator or Clinic Coordinator, both of whom attend each clinic and who are well versed in the operations of every station, fill in as Team Leaders when the need arises. We always have an experienced vet tech in the Prep station, and in Post-Op our Lead Vet Tech takes up the slack when we have relatively new volunteers at that station. We always have experienced Vets and Vet Techs at our surgery stations, and we train volunteers who are interested in learning vet assistant surgical duties. Our stations are: Admissions, Prep (includes initial anesthesia), Surgery, Post-Op and Recovery. We also have trap cleaners, transporters and laundry detail (take-home). We encourage on-the-job training, because we too have different volunteers at each clinic (although many of our volunteers attend every clinic). Our Team Leaders don't just stand around supervising. They participate in the activities at their station.

It helps if you create detailed, written protocols for each station and volunteer position. This way new volunteers can refer to these instructions if there is a question.

We have a Board of Directors (also volunteer), which makes the overall decisions on the operation of our clinics and overall program. Our Clinic Coordinator is the decision-maker at the clinics, and her decisions are based on Board-approved guidelines. We would love someday to be able to have a paid Executive Director!

Do not despair... Even though we've been holding clinics for over five years, we still struggle at times finding warm bodies to fill each volunteer slot at each station. I think in any organization there are a few people who shoulder most of the burden, and the headaches, of running a TNR program. Sometimes you have to be creative - ask for help - and beware of burnout!

Response from Jan:

We have our teams broken down as follows:

Check-In team
Records
Checkout team
Transport team
Spay Pack team
Surgery Support team
Anesthesia Team (volunteer vet techs only)
Prep team
Surgery team (vets)
Post-op team - broken into 2 phases
Cleanup team

Some volunteers work more than one team through the day. Best example is that check-in, records, and check-out tend to have some overlapping. Each team has a leader that is responsible for training new volunteers, overseeing the work etc. If the team leader cannot be there then another competent trained volunteer takes that position.

There is also an overall Mission Nip & Tip manager, currently a vet tech. She is almost always at the clinic but if she is not we make sure that at least one person "in authority" from AzCATs is there. Right now that would either be me, as the President & CEO, or our Vice President. That person knows our policies and procedures and is charged with making any difficult decisions needed that day - euthanasia decisions in consultation with the vets, etc.

If something needs "policing" like the occasional out-of-control caregiver or a volunteer determined to do something against AzCATs overall policies like "adopt" a cat or kitten from the clinic, if I am at the clinic I handle the problems. That is because my personality is suited to that kind of thing. I really think that it is important to have a known go-to person on site that you know will be rational and firm in the event that something serious happens. It has to be someone with structural authority in the organization; but I don't think it has to be any one particular position at the clinic, just so everyone knows whom it is going to be if the unexpected happens.

You asked, "And who are actually the decision makers overall for your program-do you have a Board or steering committee or just a few people?"

We have a clear, narrow mission - to humanely end the cat overpopulation problem in Arizona. We have 3 focused ways we work to do that - TNR, spay/neuter programs, and public education.

I was one of AzCATs co-founders. We began as so many of these organizations do as a mom & pop operation in someone's garage (mine). For a long time we had a "working" Board, also typical. In January of 2002, I stepped down from our Board into what was then the position of Executive Director (since renamed) to begin the process of moving AzCATs toward a "traditional" or governing Board structure. We achieved a totally traditional Board in 2003. The Board job description states in pertinent part:

Purpose:
Make policy and planning decisions; be responsible for financing those decisions;
Monitor the implementation of those decisions and evaluate the results.

Responsibilities include:
- Regular Board attendance (75%)
- Employ the president & CEO and annually review their performance
- Adopt and monitor the annual operating budget and protect our assets.
- Give $1,000 to the annual campaign and solicit the contributions of others.

Those are the main responsibilities of the Board.

How our programs are implemented, staffing, and typical day-to-day activities like any business faces, ultimately falls on me to handle.

What has worked and what hasn't

Question from a member:

I'm always interested in hearing what makes a program work and what people have learned not to do so that others don't have to reinvent the wheel. Can you talk about what are the keys to your success and the top things you learned not to do?

Response from Jan:

Keys to Success:
It helps, of course, if you have leadership that is passionate about the organization's mission. I think that is pretty common among rescue groups.

AzCATs has a narrow, focused mission. We have priorities and policies in place to guide our decision-making process. We don't try to be all things to all people.

We never had the them-us mindset regarding volunteers. I volunteer for other rescue organizations. I encourage our volunteers to do that. We encourage volunteers from other organizations to work with us and continue with other organizations.

I frankly think it helped that one of the co-founders is an attorney. I had that whole rules, regulations, and structure thing already ingrained.

One of the things I absolutely love about AzCATs as an organization is that we are always growing, changing, and trying new things. We aren't afraid to make mistakes and learn from them.

Top things learned not to do:
Being afraid of losing a critical volunteer. Sometimes that can prevent needed growth and change.

Testing feral cats for FeLV or FIV.

Being afraid to move forward or change for fear that a mistake will be made. You will make mistakes; get over it.

If you are the founder of an organization, I recommend not trying to hang onto control. Move the organization forward so that it can thrive and grow beyond you.

Response from Chris:

Keys to success:

Of the many keys to success of the Homeless Cat Management Team program, the most significant is our partnership with the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society, which is an open-door shelter in the Pittsburgh area. In our fledgling years the Humane Society provided us with most of the resources we needed to spay/neuter/vaccinate cats. Our first volunteer veterinarians were employees of WPHS. This organization gave (and continues to give) us full use of their large veterinary clinic and space for recovery. As our program gradually became financially stable, we took on more and more of the financial burden of operating our clinics, and now purchase all of our own supplies.

Another key to our success is the support and dedication of our volunteers, including compassionate veterinarians, vet techs and supporting volunteers. This support did not come all at once; it took some time to get the word out, to contact the veterinarians and vet techs in our community, and to build a steady volunteer base. Included in this volunteer effort is a dedicated Board of Directors who works long and hard to deal with unexpected problems, and to refine our operation into one that many have commented works like a "well oiled machine."

The generosity of the community, especially those who benefit from our free spay/neuter program, is another reason we've been able to sustain and grow our program financially.

And we've benefited greatly from the experience of other programs like ours across the country, from whom we've learned and unashamedly imitated. Among these programs three stand out: The Feral Cat Coalition in San Diego, California, Operation Catnip in North Carolina and Florida, and Alley Cat Allies, whose educational materials we've reproduced endlessly.

What we've learned not to do:

I think it will be more helpful if I point out some important things that we learned TO do, rather than not to do. I will borrow from situations HCMT has found to be of significance.

1. Always put the welfare of the cats in your care and your mission first.

2. It is important to clearly define your policies and make sure all participants, both volunteers and caretakers, know these policies.

It is also important to be courageous enough to revise a program or policy when you find out it isn't working, or needs some fine-tuning. But one thing you MUST do is think through and develop initial policies that address crucial and controversial issues to your organization. Be sure to research as much information that is out there, and get the opinions of veterinarians and other professionals. The following decisions should not be arbitrary, and should be consistently observed at your clinics.

- Euthanasia: under what circumstances will you choose to end a cat's life? Quality of life issues, and FeLV or FIV test results are two of the main points of discussion.
- Vaccination Protocols: Which vaccines will you provide?
- What cats will you serve, and how will you define this population? What will be the penalty for ignoring this mandate? How will you screen for compliance and will you allow "rescuers" or "trappers" to screen individuals/situations themselves?
- What will be your testing protocol and who will bear the financial burden of testing? What will you do if a cat tests positive?
- Pregnant Cats: Will the length of the pregnancy affect your decision to spay?
- Juvenile Spay/Neuter: At what age will you spay/neuter a kitten?
- What other surgical services will you provide, if any? Will you provide antibiotics or other medicines if a cat needs it, how will you determine if the cat is able to be medicated, and who will bear the financial responsibility for the cost of the medications?
- How will you assure that the cats will not be abandoned at your facility? What will you do if a cat is abandoned, and what is the penalty for abandonment?
- After-Care: What should a caretaker do if a cat experiences surgical complications, who will be the judge of whether a caretaker needs to seek veterinary intervention after surgery, where should the caretaker go to seek help for a cat, and who will bear the financial burden of the aftercare.
- Scheduling: How will you schedule cats fairly? Will you give volunteers preferential treatment? Will you have a limit to how many cats a caretaker can bring into a single clinic?

3. Record keeping, both financial and statistical (i.e. number of cats, males, females, pregnant, test results, etc.): Figure out a good statistical model or form and make sure to consistently update your records. When it comes time to apply for a grant, or defend your program, or answer media questions, you will be VERY glad you did.

4. Although the following has never been an issue for HCMT, make sure you follow all DEA regulations for documenting usage of controlled substances, and storing these drugs.

5. Decision Making: Have a chain of command and make sure that the person at the top is a good decision-maker and will follow program guidelines. Make sure everyone knows the chain of command.

6. Clear volunteer guidelines: Make sure your volunteers know and follow your rules and policies. Accept suggestions from volunteers, but do not let them arbitrarily ignore the policies you've put in place.

7. Insurance issues: What will you do if someone is injured at your clinic? Whose insurance will cover bites, etc.?

8. Liability: Develop a good liability waiver and make sure all participants understand and sign it.

If I went into the situations that caused me to list the above items, this would turn into a book instead of a forum answer! But HCMT has had issues arise with all of the above. Some we were prepared for, some we were not. And I can tell you - it is better to be prepared!

To test or not to test (and vaccinate)

Question from a member:

My group has been doing TNR for about four years, eartipping, but not vaccinating, the feral cats. Through your forum I discovered that a lot of groups were vaccinating, so we are now vaccinating our feral cats. One of the vets we work with feels that without a booster in the appropriate time frame we are wasting our money, another vet we work with feels very strongly that we should be vaccinating. We also test our feral population for Feleuk and FIV, which I've discovered through the Forum, is not a universal policy for TNR groups. Can you give me the latest information on vaccination and testing protocols, and why your group has chosen to vaccinate or not vaccinate, test or not test?

Response from Chris:

Vaccination and testing policies vary from TNR program to TNR program, and from vet to vet. A Google search on feline vaccine protocols will provide a number of opinions on this subject. Regarding vaccinating feral cats, Dr. Julie Levy of Operation Catnip and Dr. Margaret Slater, who wrote the book Community Approaches to Feral Cats, both provide information on this topic.

Homeless Cat Management Team provides a rabies vaccination for each cat over three months of age. We do not provide rabies vaccination booster shots.

Our lead veterinarian believes that in order to provide significant protection, the initial FVRCP and FeLV vaccines must be followed by a booster shot. Since it is highly improbable that most of the cats we spay/neuter would allow themselves to be trapped on schedule for a second vaccination, we choose not to vaccinate for FVRCP or FeLV. Another consideration is expense. Our mission is to provide population control for feral cats and to eliminate the suffering that overpopulation causes. The time and expense to boost vaccinations would significantly reduce our ability to target our primary mission, even if it were possible to re-trap the cats in 3-4 weeks.

We do not test each cat for FeLV or FIV. Again, I refer to our primary mission - to spay and neuter cats, and the importance of focusing our time and resources on this goal. We offer FeLV testing to colony caretakers as an option, and charge a small fee for that service. If a cat tests positive for FeLV, we euthanize the cat. If a cat is symptomatic of an FeLV infection, upon the request of a veterinarian we will test that cat and HCMT will cover the cost of testing. Again, if the cat is positive, we euthanize the cat.

Although we tested for FIV in the first few years of operation, we no longer do so. Our reasons for discontinuing the FIV testing mirror the reasons Alley Cat Allies discusses on their website (www.alleycat.org) under Resources/Health.

Response from Jan:

We don't vaccinate. I agree with the vet that says it's a waste of money for a several reasons, including the lack of a booster.

I have thought about the possibility that AzCATs would be willing to move to vaccinating for rabies in the future. My reason is that people get particularly nuts about rabies - even though there hasn't been a case of rabies in a cat or dog in Maricopa County for over 30 years. The vaccine is fairly inexpensive. I'd do it for public relations purposes to win more approval for TNR and that's the only reason.

When AzCATs began we tested for FeLV and FIV and euthanized a lot of cats for no good reason because of positive tests. Now we never test for either. There was a period of time when we tested cats presenting with significant illness. If they tested positive that would be the deciding factor on whether to euthanize. We don't bother now. We've gotten comfortable with making those decisions without falling back on a test to decide for us.

AzCATs had some problems with one of our veterinarians a while back. They were testing ferals at the request of the caregivers then euthanizing if positive. Sometimes they would do it after the cats were sterilized if the caregiver made the request when they came to pick up the cat. (Of course they'd charge us for the surgery, too.) I tried to reason with them on various fronts but they wouldn't budge. I wrote the following policy and let them know we'd be enforcing it - guess
what, no more tests:

FeLV and FIV Testing
Policy Notice

AzCATs does not authorize testing feral cats for FeLV or FIV.
See reverse for information supporting this policy.

Any caregivers using the services of AzCATs to sterilize feral cats shall not circumvent this policy through a separate agreement with the veterinarian AzCATs has scheduled their appointment with.

Caregivers electing to have cats tested for feline leukemia virus (FeLV) or feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) when they arrive at the veterinarian's office have terminated the agreement between AzCATs and the caregiver effective immediately. Revocation of AzCATs' agreement with the caregivers is not contingent upon the results of any testing. Veterinarians working with AzCATs have been so advised.

AzCATs' mission is to help homeless, unowned feral cats. Caregivers electing to specify medical procedures for the cats are claiming ownership of the cats. At that point they no longer fit within our mission. Pricing and payment for any and all services, including the sterilization of the cats, shall be by agreement between the owner/caregiver and the veterinarian. AzCATs cannot use its scarce donation dollars to subsidize veterinary procedures for privately owned cats, particularly where, as here, the course of action elected is directly contrary to the policies of AzCATs.

Veterinarians assisting AzCATs have been advised that owner/caregivers requesting testing for cats scheduled for appointments through AzCATs are not eligible for assistance from AzCATs from that point forward. The owner/caregiver is then the client of that veterinarian and the veterinarian is free to charge at standard prices for all services rendered. Agreement as to the time and method of payment shall also be determined between the owner/caregiver and the veterinarian. AzCATs shall not be responsible for any of that owner/caregiver's expenses, including the cost of sterilization.

AzCATs shall return any donation to the caregiver less our standard trap rental fee. That rental fee is a minimum of $5 per trap with $1 per day additional charge for each trap held for more than 5 days. Authority to use AzCATs' traps is revoked immediately upon the decision to test. Caregivers shall return traps to AzCATs within 48 hours of termination of the agreement. AzCATs has requested that veterinarians schedule any subsequent appointments with sufficient lag time to allow for the immediate return of our traps.

AzCATs must control the terms and conditions of our TNR program. The cooperation of all participants in our program is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jan J. Raven
President & CEO

On the reverse:

Major reasons why AzCATs follows the lead of the national experts and does not test feral cats for FeLV or FIV:

- Studies show that there is no greater incident of disease in feral cats than there is in tame, owned, free-roaming cats.

- It is an unaltered cat, regardless of whether they are from feral colonies or private homes, that wander, fight, reproduce, and have the potential to spread disease.

- Sterilization reduces or eliminates the behaviors which spread disease.

- Studies show that using our scarce economic resources to sterilize more cats than otherwise would be sterilized given the cost of testing, actually works to more quickly reduce the number of FeLV positive cats.

- The American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) recommends retesting all cats that initially test positive. AAFP states that the decision to euthanize should never be made solely on the basis of one positive test. It is impractical or impossible to hold feral cats for the period of time necessary before retesting can occur.

- False positives do occur and a negative test does not necessarily mean that the cat has not been exposed to disease.

- Asymptomatic, infected cats can remain healthy for several years. Cats sterilized through AzCATs' TNR programs receive ongoing care and monitoring from their caregivers. Any cat showing signs of illness can be subsequently attended to.

- Removing and euthanizing a cat that tests positive will not necessarily prevent the spread of infection within the colony since the colony's exposure to the virus would already have occurred.

- Exposure does not always mean infection.

Showing health departments the benefit of your program

Question from Rosie:

Have you ever had to defend your program coming under attack from outside pressures like health departments? If so, how have you done it? We have been doing our program very quietly because our local health department is opposed to TNR. Up until now we haven't had a problem, but recently a girl was bitten while playing with a stray cat in an area where we actually are doing TNR. We are wondering if we should be going to the health department now to try to be proactive about the situation and show them how our program would benefit particularly in this situation, but are very worried that could jeopardize our entire program.

Response from Jan:

AzCATs is fortunate in that the local climate for TNR is fairly friendly at least on a governmental level. Governmentally the worst we deal with is indifference as to whether cats are Trapped/Neutered/Returned or trapped and killed. Most of the time problems come to us from organizations like homeowner's associations, schools, and employers worried about liability at their business. Unfortunately educating people about the benefits of TNR can be a long, slow, but necessary, process.

In my opinion you don't have any choice but to begin the process of trying to educate your health department about the benefits of TNR. There is a lot that you can agree with them on. We find it disarms TNR opponents to start by agreeing with them on some things that they don't expect us to. For example, we tell them that we don't like to see feral cats either, and that we have a common goal - to eliminate the feral cat population. Then we point out that what we disagree on is the best method for accomplishing that - things along those lines.

Your health department may well move on the free-roaming cat issues affecting your community with or without your input. They have to hear about your side of this.

If all the health department is hearing about these issues is opposition to TNR, they may think that there is no public debate on this issue. The danger is that they would then adopt policies that would make it even worse for you. At least, if they know that there are a lot of people supporting TNR, they may find the issue one that they don't want to be embroiled in. And, who knows, if educated, they may come to adopt your position. Stranger things have happened.

Finally, while it isn't particularly relevant to the question, I think we all recognize that it wasn't a feral cat that bit this girl. Another point that you could agree on with your health department is that tame cats should not be allowed to roam free.

Response from Chris:

When a municipal agency, health department or other group is opposed to TNR, it means that they do not understand the principles behind this method of population control, and the consequences of not having a non-lethal way of controlling free-roaming cat populations.

The alternative to TNR in most communities is not trap-and-kill, but doing nothing, then reactively responding in a limited way when a situation arises like the little girl getting bitten by a stray in your example. If that particular stray cat were part of a managed colony, the cat would have been vaccinated for rabies, which is a very convincing argument for Trap-Neuter-Return.

In the past, Homeless Cat Management Team also tried to keep "under the radar" in fear that a public agency would try to shut us down. We just plugged on, spaying and neutering as many cats as we could, gathering community support from grassroots cat lovers and colony caretakers. Eventually, after sterilizing a couple thousand cats, our program had grown too large to keep it under wraps. Several positive articles in local newspapers brought us "out of the closet," and gave us the courage to approach some small communities about TNR programs in their municipalities.

We used Alley Cat Allies educational materials, in particular the "Humane Solution" video, and found that the municipalities we targeted embraced the concept, even though they weren't totally convinced that it would work. We emphasized the positive community involvement, the fact that no public dollars would have to be spent (that's a BIG deal to cash-strapped communities). We also brought out, the fact that trap-and-kill, besides being ineffective, is very unpopular, and the fact that basically NOTHING would be done if TNR was not approved. The rabies vaccination for each cat was just icing on the cake.

Just recently the Allegheny County Health Department invited a speaker from Homeless Cat Management Team to address a series of training classes for municipal government workers throughout the county. We were able to educate over 120 people from 57 local municipalities on the benefits of TNR. These are the men and women who handle "pest control" complaints in their municipalities, and most were unaware of the concept of TNR and its benefits.

Frankly, we were amazed that the Health Department sought us out, but nothing is as convincing as success. The Health Department representatives attending the classes were so impressed with TNR that they asked us to mail them a quantity of HCMT brochures so that their inspectors could hand them out to people in need of our services.

There are so many benefits to a Trap-Neuter-Return program, and local governments and agencies need to be educated about how it works, why it works, and why other alternatives do not work. The way in which you do this needs to be carefully thought out, and your presenter needs to be very well versed in TNR, the benefits, and the arguments against it. I would strongly recommend Alley Cat Allies website for tips on how to speak about the benefits of TNR.

Just last year TNR was under attack in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and several wildlife and bird advocacy groups. The PGC introduced a ruling that would have effectively made TNR programs in the state illegal. It was a very scary situation. But TNR groups across the state banded together and spoke at the public hearing on the issue in Harrisburg, and the Game Commissioners voted down the ruling unanimously. I think if this governmental body had been more aware of what TNR is and how it works, the ruling would have never been introduced in the first place.

Sometimes if you sit back meekly and hope not to get "busted" for what you are doing, it looks like you are doing something wrong. Sometimes a proactive approach is the best way to promote your good works. It helps if you have some successes under your belt, but TNR has been so successful across the country (and the world), there are many examples you can use in a presentation.

You may want to look at an early February, 2004 NMHP Forum by Amy Santiago of Alley Cat Allies and Dr. Julie Levy from the University of Florida; and also the September 8-12, 2003 NMHP forum by Nathan Winograd from Tompkins County SPCA. Both respond to questions about this same issue.

How to set goals for a feral program

Question from Sandy:

A small group of us do a feral cat clinic, a large clinic once a month with local vets and then a small 5-cat clinic once a week. While we are very proud of our accomplishments, we feel like we are never getting ahead of the game, especially in the spring, when there are so many pregnancies and kittens. Although this year, even in the winter, we still saw pregnant cats! How do you set goals for how many cats you are going to do each year, and do you have any measurable results for your programs?

Response from Jan:

You are making a difference with what you do. Any feral cat sterilized makes a difference. Getting ahead of the game - now that is a whole different thing! We have been at this for five years. One thing I used as a "measure" of success was that it got a little later every year before we lost control during kitten season. AzCATs started in June, so we started completely out of control. I can't remember what it was like the next year, but as the years rolled by we began to see that we were holding the line for a little longer each year. We still aren't close to being out of control this year yet. We are actually in the position for the first time ever of having to advertise TNR and our services, or we are in danger of not having as many cats to sterilize as we have vet slots. This doesn't mean the job is close to being done. It is just that we always had so much more than we could ever do that even with people finding us by word of mouth, some would wait as long as 6 months before we could help them.

We are still seeing a lot of kittens this year, but we are able to meet the needs of each caregiver and help them address their kittens within the confines of what they are willing to do. Getting out of control in this context means that there are kittens everywhere, and we can't even think about doing anything but waiting for them to get big enough to sterilize. I'm sure we will get there again this year, but once again, it is going to hit later than ever before.

Remember you don't have to sterilize every free-roaming cat to get this under control. You just have to get to the point where the supply of cats able to live as household pets is in harmony with the demand for them as household companions. Once you reach that point you reach the turning point. Until then you get an E for effort - to borrow from Merritt Clifton.

Grow, change, adapt. Try new things. Press hard. AzCATs actually sets our goals pretty arbitrarily. I pretty much just pick a number that I don't think we can achieve without busting our butts, and then find a way to do it! Not very scientific and perhaps not even very wise but I've always driven myself that way. Last year our goal was to TNR 3,000. I think I picked that number by increasing a percentage over the prior year. We exceeded that goal by 430, so I decided I hadn't been very aggressive. This year I just doubled the 2003 goal, gave everyone a heart attack, and started working to reach it. In the first 3 months of the year we have sterilized 1487 cats through our TNR program, so I am 13 cats short of being right on target to meet our goal.

Measurable results for us right now are just meeting our TNR statistical goal basically. We also have a goal in conjunction with another organization of taking 400 kittens off the street and placing them for adoption with that organization.

We used to count the number of pregnancies we saw at our high volume spay neuter clinics. The number of litters prevented was impressive. I know it is controversial on many levels but internally we now count the number of fetuses aborted rather than just pregnancies. Many of our high volume clinics this spring had either almost the same number of fetuses as cats or more fetuses than cats at the clinic. That is a lot more powerful number than just the number of pregnancies. It also permits you to extrapolate and come up with some assumptions to help you powerfully present how critical TNR is to the movement to end the companion animal overpopulation problem.

Response from Chris:

Don't be discouraged!!! It sometimes takes years to see overall results from your spay/neuter efforts, and it is important to continually explore ways to increase the amount of cats sterilized. But every cat fixed is a success story. Have you ever heard the "Little Boy and the Starfish On the Beach" story?

The smaller your program area, the faster you will see measurable results. As an example, if your program area were a single colony of 10 cats, you would see results in a couple of weeks! At almost every clinic we say goodbye to a participating colony caretaker, who proudly informs us "this is the LAST cat!" If we add up all those totally spayed/neutered/managed colonies, we are indeed making a big difference in the community.

Homeless Cat Management Team's program area covers Southwestern Pennsylvania. If we had to do it all over again, we would probably have chosen a smaller area. We have, however, chosen a small municipality in our coverage area that receives priority status at our clinics. This municipality's cat problem was so visible that it was the subject of several newspaper articles. We scheduled a meeting with municipal authorities, received their blessing for a TNR program, and held a Town Meeting to address the issue of free-roaming cats and TNR. Then we registered colony caretakers from that municipality, and continue to guarantee spay/neuter spots to this community's cats at each of our clinics. In a recent conversation with the borough manager, he said that he hasn't received a complaint about free-roaming cats in a long time.

Each year our basic goal is to sterilize more cats than we did the year before. We find it hard to set a goal for a specific number of cats, because the number of cats we can sterilize at each clinic depends on volunteer veterinary participation. We have no way of knowing ahead of time how many vets will volunteer at any given clinic.

We are just about to launch a low-cost clinic, two Sundays a month, where we will pay vets and vet techs for their services and charge a fee for spay/neuter. We also have an agreement with the Western PA Humane Society where they will spay/neuter up to 10 cats a week for us, during the week, at a small fee per cat. With these two new programs, we hope to double the amount of cats we sterilize each year.

Because of our large service area, we have not seen the significant reduction in intake and euthanasia in our local shelters that we would have liked to see, even after five years. Some shelters do not differentiate between feral/stray surrenders and pet surrenders, and that also hinders quantifying the impact a TNR program is having on the shelter level. Euthanasia of "adoptable" animals has decreased dramatically in our local shelters, but whether that is due to increased spay/neuter programs (including TNR), more progressive adoption options (off-site adoptions, etc), or just redefining "adoptable" is hard to quantify.

Keep up your good work. Keep looking for ways to fix more kitties, and know that you are improving the lives of the cats you spay/neuter and the communities in which they live.

Kindness to animals builds a better world for all of us.
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