Since 2017, a devoted group of volunteer college students and school on the University of West Florida has been working to scale back the variety of stray cats on the Pensacola campus. The Campus Cat Program seems to be having some success in addressing what has been a decades-long drawback.
The program started as a humane different for coping with stray cats on campus after Nicole McDonald began receiving complaints.
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“There [were] some people here and there feeding them and taking care of them,” mentioned McDonald, “We sat down with some local organizations, Animal Alliance, and Everett Animal Group, to figure out how do we deal with them because we didn’t want to just trap them and have them euthanized.”
Six years later, this system remains to be going robust.
“We came up with a plan to coexist with our cats on campus,” mentioned McDonald, “We got our task force run through the [Vice President] of finance and administration and up to Dr. Saunders at the time who agreed we had a good plan. It’s been a good program. We have been able to eradicate the problem and we have humanely managed them on campus and found homes for a bunch of them.”
Brandi Winkleman, president of A Hope, a nonprofit organization in Santa Rosa County, says she is grateful to have this system to assist handle the issue.
“The overpopulation crisis in this area, northwest Florida, is extremely high,” mentioned Winkleman. “And a problem for animal shelters and for people in the community who are caring for these . People think, just take them to the shelter and have them put down or adopted out. I mean, you can’t adopt out a feral cat. You really have to get in front of the situation, and you have to think proactively versus reactively.”
Ashley Faulkner
TNR — or Trap Neuter Release — has been the reply to the realm’s rising inhabitants of stray cats and kittens. Volunteers additionally make sure the cats are fed daily at a set time and are persistently monitored for damage and total well being.
“It’s about taking care of the animals that are already there and maintaining the health of that community of cats and the people that take care of them,” mentioned Winkleman. “Go ahead and get them fixed, stop the cycle so there’s not so many who are fighting over food, as well as feed them regularly so they know that there is food coming out for them at certain times of the day.”
The Campus Cat Program volunteers go to nice lengths to verify the cats are cared for persistently.
“We feed the cats every day,” mentioned McDonald, “Even during holidays, even during closures, even during hurricane closures. And if we notice that any have any medical issues, if we are able to trap them again to get them medical help, we will. Sometimes it’s a little difficult to trap the feral ones. They know what the trap is and don’t want to go back in it the second time. But we do our best to keep them healthy.”
Kittens who’re trapped could also be fostered till they’re old sufficient for surgical procedure or socialized for adoption. Thanks to this system, McDonald mentioned they’ve not had a giant want for kitten fosters.
“We, should say knock on wood, have not had any kittens in the last…probably year,” mentioned McDonald. “But there was a time where we were getting a couple of litters of kittens each year that we needed to find foster homes for until they were old enough to go somewhere. Because of the success of our program, we don’t need as many fosters, but we never know. That number could change in the blink of an eye.”
The Campus Cat Program is an official University of West Florida-sanctioned program and as such falls below the University banner of organizations. However, this can be a volunteer-run, publicly funded program, and the largest limitation confronted is monetary funding. Donations are all the time welcome.
“We never know when we may need funding to pay for vet care,” mentioned McDonald, “You can donate through your paycheck to any foundation account, and the UWF ‘campus cats’ is on the list. And the general public can donate too, as well.”
For these trying to undertake a UWF campus cat, pleasant and socialized cats are sometimes available.
For extra info, contact Nicole McDonald at [email protected].
