On the Island
Thirty-six feral or stray cats and kittens from the Island neighborhood were present at Thursday's spay and neuter clinic at the Butler City Farmers' Market at 209 S Chestnut St.
But it was the two cats that were registered and were no-shows that weighed on the mind of Cheryl Shields, a board member of the Community Cat Network, the nonprofit group that sponsored the event.
“Two people did not show up. We had 45 people on the wait list,” Shields said. “So many people wanted to come and that time is just wasted.”Those two missing cats could be responsible for another 200 feral cats by the end of the year, Shields said.“Each female cat can have 100 kittens a year,” Shields said. “And each of those kittens can get pregnant at four months.”“And two or three days after giving birth, the mother cat can get pregnant again,” she added..
This incredible fertility has led to an exploding population of stray feral cats and the creation of the Community Cat Network, a 501(c) (3), all-volunteer, grass-roots organization working on humanely controlling the population by trapping and spaying and neutering cats, and fostering them when possible.Member Colleen Hofstetter said the group became a 501(c) (3) nonprofit in November.“Before that, we were just random ladies running around Butler County with traps,” Hofstetter said.
With nonprofit status, the network was able to get a grant from the Irving and Phyllis Millstein Foundation For Animal Welfare Ltd.That grant helped pay for veterinarian Theo Nelson of Shaler, her three assistants and her mobile surgery unit to attend the clinic.Nelson, who conducts spay and neuter clinics five days a week, said she can spay a female cat in anywhere from three to seven minutes after the cat has been weighed, sedated and shaved.“It's a pretty quick procedure. I make a centimeter incision and remove both the ovaries and the uterus,” Nelson said.“I sew one or two stitches in the abdomen and one or two stitches in the skin,” she added. The animal then takes about an hour to recover from sedation and is usually back to normal in a couple of days.
Removing a tom cat's testicles is even faster, she said, 30 seconds to a minute.But before the operation, Nelson said she and her team give the animal a full health checkup: a rabies shot, tests for feline leukemia and herpes and checks of their ears and teeth.“This might be the only time these cats will see a vet in their life,” she said.After their surgeries, kittens will be socialized and placed for adoption and the adult cats will often be returned to their colonies or groups of cats living feral.Hofstetter said ideally, a whole colony of feral cats should be spayed and neutered. The colony will eventually die out, she said, because once established the cats won't let outside animals join.
Diminishing the feral cat colonies in the city's Island neighborhood was the goal of Thursday's clinic, Hofstetter said.And the problem isn't just the cats' fertility, it's people's attitudes.“Pretty much anywhere there are people there is a feral cat problem,” Hofstetter said.
People adopt kittens and don't get them spayed and neutered, she said. When the adult females go into heat and the adult males begin spraying urine to mark their territory, people put them outside or abandon them.The network members try to counter the growing feral population with trapping and spay and neutering efforts.Hofstetter said the network is planning another spay and neuter clinic next month in Herman. She advised people to check the network's Facebook page for more information
