Feral cat reduction program underway

BY JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Saturday, November 7, 2009 7:57 PM PST

ONTARIO — Ontario resident Shawna Warden, Ontario Feral Cat TNR Project volunteer, said she feels very passionate about the work she and other volunteers are doing to help reduce the feral cat population in Ontario.

Thursday, she and a small group of other project volunteers completed the first part of their mission — trapping a small colony of cats in a neighborhood off of West Idaho Avenue and preparing them to be spayed and neutered.

“I don’t have any pets, but I’m interested in the welfare of the animals,” Warden said.

In May, the Ontario Budget Committee signed off on a proposal to set aside $5,000 in the Ontario Police Department budget for a community-run program to trap, spray or neuter and then release feral cats. The community was asked to come up with $5,000 as a match. Even though the City Council gave approval for the program to begin before that $5,000 was reached, through the $4,700 raised and the value of donated cat traps, that goal was met, Ontario Police Chief Mike Kee said.

As of Friday, Ontario Feral Cat TNR Project volunteer Elizabeth Lyon was calling the first round of the project a success.

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Lyon said that trapping site was selected because it had a relatively small, but troublesome, colony of cats that was perfect for the first go-round of TNR.

Prior to the cat-trapping session, the volunteers had handed out pamphlets explaining the process the week before and coordinated with the colony caretaker to not feed the cats for 24 hours so they would be hungry when the trapping began. Thursday, the group of volunteers trapped seven cats. Friday morning, two more cats — two large toms that Lyon said were responsible for a number of kittens in the neighborhood — were caught, and all were taken to Ontario Animal Hospital to be spayed or neutered.

As of Friday evening, seven cats had undergone the operation, Lyon said. One cat was already neutered and likely the pet of the caretaker. The cats received vaccinations for rabies and distemper and were also treated for fleas and earmites. The cats were then transported by the volunteers back to the holding area to recuperate.

“They were all bright-eyed and awake and doing real well,” Lyon said Friday.

Friday, the cats were slated to be released back to the area they came from, and the Ontario Feral Cat TNR Project volunteers will likely begin on another small colony within the next few weeks. The program is only for feral cats, Lyon stressed, not for pets.

“The vets have a capacity to handle about 200 cats a year, and that’s probably as much money as we’ve got,” Lyon said. “We’d like to do more than that because there’s a bigger problem than that, but we don’t have the capacity.”

Kee, who was also on hand with his wife Thursday for the trapping, said he was very pleased with how the process went, although he admits, looking back, he didn’t know what he was getting into when he presented the project to the Ontario City Council and budget committee.

“I thought it went absolutely fantastic,” he said Friday morning. “It’s kind of fun and kind of fulfilling.”

Lyon said if 70 percent of the cats in a colony are trapped, the colony will stabilize, and if 90 percent of the cats are trapped, the colony population will decrease.

Even as the TNR program continues, there is other work that needs to be done.

“We’re just going to keep fundraising, and we’re going to work toward the next $5,000,” Kee said, adding more volunteers are also wanted.

Lyon added, for the program to be successful, more volunteers and funding are necessary because the Ontario feral cat population is much greater than the group’s resources.

“We’ve definitely identified 10 different colonies, but there are many more than that,” she said, adding, based on statistical information, there are probably 1,800 feral cats in the city. “There are feral cats everywhere, and there’s no way to know how many really.”

For more information on the Ontario Feral Cat TNR Project, visit the group’s Web site at www.ontarioferalcats.org.