Diane Melendez
11-20-2008, 07:04 PM
For animal lovers and especially those who love cats, Jacksonville has adopted and new approach to dealing with "feral cats" and it does not include killing them. Starting August 1st of this year, Animal Control began trapping "feral cats", spaying or neutering them, giving them shots and then returning them to where they had previously lived. Animal Control had figured out that the policy they had previously used, which was killing the cats was not solving the problem of feral cats. They began to realize that if they were able to spay and neuter cats on the loose they could impact the feral population and allow the cats to live out their normal lives.
I happen to live in an area of Avondale that has alot of cats who are outside. I also have several neighbors who are cat lovers and would catch strays have them neutered, give them shots and then release them. Everyone around here feeds them and leaves out water for them. But for those cats in areas where that is not the case, they are quite capable of making it on their own.
Now we can be certain that there will be some who will moan and groan about this new program, but so far Animal Control has caught and treated over 1,200 cats and let them live. We are going to have to spend money to deal with feral cats. How nice that we would chose to let them live their lives while at the same time prevent them parenting unwanted kittens. Way to go! :yahoo!:
I happen to live in an area of Avondale that has alot of cats who are outside. I also have several neighbors who are cat lovers and would catch strays have them neutered, give them shots and then release them. Everyone around here feeds them and leaves out water for them. But for those cats in areas where that is not the case, they are quite capable of making it on their own.
Now we can be certain that there will be some who will moan and groan about this new program, but so far Animal Control has caught and treated over 1,200 cats and let them live. We are going to have to spend money to deal with feral cats. How nice that we would chose to let them live their lives while at the same time prevent them parenting unwanted kittens. Way to go! :yahoo!: