Addressing the local cat problem
This particular scruffy cat has a peculiar characteristic – the tip of its ear is missing, forming a flattened edge.
No, it hasn’t been harmed in a fight or a run-in with a sharp surface. The cat’s clipped ear is an ear tip, the universal sign the animal has been trapped, neutered and returned, a humane way to reduce the number of cats out on the streets.
The volunteers of the nonprofits Community Cat Allies and Best Life TNR & Rescue, Inc. are hard at work carrying out this procedure on as many unowned, free-roaming cats in Monterey County as possible.
“Our mission really is to save cats – it’s that simple,” said Meg Davidson, founder of Community Cat Allies. “And we believe our place in the cat-saving universe is to trap, neuter/spay, vaccinate and return, or TNR.”
Thousands of feral cats, which are unsocialized and afraid of humans, can be found wandering around Monterey County, according to Shannon Chaffin, founder of Best Life. The biggest cat crowds, Davidson added, live in the northern region, including Prunedale, Castroville, Salinas and Marina. She said the county’s mild weather means kitten birthing season lasts longer than in other parts of the U.S. and that the county lacks sufficient access to enough low-cost spay/neuter services to handle the sheer number of cats.
Between July 2020 and June 2021, the SPCA Monterey County took in 1,699 cats and kittens. The majority were adopted, but others were transferred to different agencies or euthanized due to health problems or aggression. Feral cats taken into shelters, however, rarely make it out alive, according to Davidson.
“Animals suffer when there are too many pets and not enough homes,” said Beth Brookhouser, vice president of marketing and communications of the SPCA Monterey County.
But TNR groups like Community Cat Allies and Best Life are helping to shrink that intake amount by reducing the number of cats that could end up in shelters.
“We just fix as many cats as we can so they will stop having litter after litter,” Chaffin said.
Since its establishment in August 2016, Community Cat Allies has trapped, neutered and returned 740 cats; 203 in 2021. The group currently consists of seven volunteers, most of whom also have full-time jobs. Best Life, also a small team of seven volunteers, both employed and retired, has trapped, neutered and returned 349 cats since its founding in January 2020, 168 of which were completed last year.
A cat is lured into a humane trap by a trail of food set by a volunteer or trained community member. When the cat is fully inside the cage, the animal either trips a mechanism that closes the door, or the person who set the trap triggers it. The cage is immediately covered with a blanket to calm the cat down.
The next day, the cat goes to a vet clinic for spay or neuter surgery, vaccinations, microchipping and an ear tip. After an overnight recovery, the cat is returned to the area where it was found.
The SPCA is one of the few veterinary clinics in Monterey County that offers spay/neuter services for feral cats, and the organization frequently works with Community Cat Allies and Best Life. Their veterinarians have performed these procedures on thousands of cats at a low cost to pet owners and TNR organizations, according to Brookhouser.
In addition to TNR, both Community Cat Allies and Best Life have foster and adoption programs to find homes for kittens and friendly stray cats, which, unlike ferals, once lived with humans.
“Any kitten I get off the street is a joyous moment for me,” Chaffin said. “To look at their little faces and to know that they don’t have to grow up out there – that’s a memorable moment.”
Today, both Chaffin and Davidson have made it their life mission to help cats living alongside us in the community.
“Humane treatment of animals comes in many forms,” Brookhouser said. “And one of those is being proactive to take care of animals through spay/neuter so that we don’t have a problem with too many animals and not enough homes in our community.”
