The reporter made absolutely no effort to contact pro-feral cat people such as Julie Levy or Alley Cat Allies for pro TNR scientific studies, making it look like science and rationality back Longcore, and the cat people were soft hearted and soft headed do gooders.
One shocking statistic is that only 8,000 Animal Service voucher surgeries were performed last year. This is a dramatic decrease from the previous year's approximate 28,000 (As per Ed Boks).
LA Times Article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-feral-cats17-2010jan17,0,6283562,full.story
A catfight over neutering program
Bird lovers take issue with a city-subsidized nonprofit in Sun Valley that traps, sterilizes and then releases feral cats, saying it violates state environmental laws and doesn't reduce the population
 Jennifer Andelin of FixNaion removes a cat, under anesthesia, for neutering. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) |
The line forms even before the doors open at FixNation in Sun Valley. The trappers come, five days a week, back seats and trunks loaded with feral cats. Inside is a highly organized production line: On an average day, about 80 cats will be neutered, then released 24 hours later into the neighborhoods they came from.
This largely volunteer effort seeks to control a problem that vexes cities everywhere: how to manage homeless, free-roaming cats -- thought to number at least 1 million in Los Angeles -- while trying to avoid euthanizing them.
But the Audubon Society and other bird and wildlife groups say the program violates state environment laws. And what's more, they contend it isn't reducing the number of feral cats, which prey on many types of birds.
So the bird people took the city to court, much to the dismay of the cat people. Last month, after a daylong trial, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge sided with the plaintiffs, and it recently issued an injunction barring the city from subsidizing or promoting the trap-neuter-release program until environmental studies are completed.
In the long-playing Sylvester-vs.-Tweety battles, score a big one for the birds.
"The latest estimates are that there are about . . . 160 million feral cats [nationwide]," said Steve Holmer, senior policy advisor of the American Bird Conservancy, one of the groups that sued the city of Los Angeles. "It's conservatively estimated that they kill about 500 million birds a year."
But Judge Thomas McKnew Jr.'s decision sent a chill through cat advocates, who fear it could discourage municipalities across the nation from employing trap-neuter-release as a way to reduce shelter killings.
"There will be diminished public awareness of the homeless cat situation and the trap-neuter-release solution," said Mark Dodge, founder of the nonprofit FixNation. "More homeless cats get abandoned, get ignored. It will probably mean more euthanasias of cats in shelters."
In addition to barring city vouchers that offset the cost of neutering, the city cannot release feral cats from shelters to organizations like FixNation; conduct public outreach about the program; refer complaints about feral cats to trap-neuter-release groups; or waive cat-trap rental fees. (In the last fiscal year, the city spent about $240,000 subsidizing 8,000 surgeries for stray cats.)
City animal control officials declined to comment. The deputy city attorney on the case did not return repeated phone calls.
Not surprisingly, the ruling set off a flurry of emotional rhetoric.
In one online petition expressing outrage over the "ill-advised ruling," signer Joanna Milkowski quoted Gandhi: "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." Another called on people to "Help the Babies!!!!"
Dodge even suggested that these bird groups are "extremists" who "need to be marginalized" just like "Islamic jihadists."
"It's ugly; it's gotten very vicious," said Travis Longcore of the Urban Wildlands Group, one of the organizations that sued the city on behalf of the birds. "It's not like we've got a vendetta here. This is a real environmental issue, a real public health issue."
Although neutering and releasing the cats "appeals to the illusion of a win-win situation," Longcore said, the birds and other wildlife are losing out. "The fact is, you decide not to kill cats and instead you kill wildlife."
Those cats, Longcore said, often are diseased. And when colonies are fed, the practice often attracts more cats, either from around the neighborhood or because people dump new cats.
At San Pedro's Cabrillo Beach, a feral cat colony resides near where snowy plovers nest, said Garry George, conservation chairman for the Los Angeles Audubon Society. At San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, George said, feral cats have wiped out the California quail population. And in San Diego, feral cats roam free near a habitat for the California least tern, which officials are trying to monitor and protect, he said.
But even if environmental reviews are conducted, the question at the core of the dispute would remain: Does neutering feral cats effectively reduce their numbers?
Longcore, in a paper published in the scientific journal Conservation Biology, suggests that it does not, making him a prime target for cat lovers.
He cited two studies, including one in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Assn., that used mathematical models to determine that 71% to 94% of the cats in a colony must be neutered in order for the numbers to decline. In two feral colonies monitored in Florida, Longcore reported, the population actually increased because people dumped new cats.
In Los Angeles County, the environmental health department said that the approach has been "collectively ineffectual" and that all county-monitored colonies had significantly increased in number. Gail VanGordon, chief of the county's vector management program, said that in addition to colonies not being reduced or eliminated, feral cats create public health concerns that result from feces and fleas.
But inside FixNation, the dedicated army of cat lovers is convinced its work is making a difference. Last year alone, the organization -- one of several in Southern California -- neutered 15,660 feral cats.
Trap-neuter-release advocates say it's common sense: Isn't it better to neuter those cats than to have them out breeding?
"This program has been a boon to animal control folks because it helps them manage an issue in a way that the community approves," said Francis Battista, founder of Best Friends Animal Society, which helps fund FixNation. "If you take feral cats to a shelter, they're dead. Nobody's going to adopt it."
That's part of what drives Roberta Garten, one of FixNation's "master trappers."
She roams the streets of Los Angeles at night in search of feral cats. Armed with a flashlight and a Honda full of a cat's delights -- canned tuna, desiccated fish flakes, sardines, dry kibble and catnip -- she might trap 16 to 20 animals a week. In one two-block radius in Lincoln Heights, she helped trap and fix more than 40 feral cats.
Residents, several of whom feed the feral cats, come outside to help, thanking Garten for her efforts. She's so tuned in to the neighborhoods where she traps that she recognizes each hiding space and kitty, including one particularly stubborn black cat that had been successfully evading her traps and stinky fish.
After a long, cold night of waiting, one curious cat finally wanders into the cage. Garten checks the cat's right ear. It's not snipped, the telltale sign that it hasn't been neutered -- eliciting a "hallelujah" cry of success from Garten.
"I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile," Garten said. "I feel like it's helping this neighborhood a lot."
kimi.yoshino@latimes.com
This largely volunteer effort seeks to control a problem that vexes cities everywhere: how to manage homeless, free-roaming cats -- thought to number at least 1 million in Los Angeles -- while trying to avoid euthanizing them.
But the Audubon Society and other bird and wildlife groups say the program violates state environment laws. And what's more, they contend it isn't reducing the number of feral cats, which prey on many types of birds.
So the bird people took the city to court, much to the dismay of the cat people. Last month, after a daylong trial, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge sided with the plaintiffs, and it recently issued an injunction barring the city from subsidizing or promoting the trap-neuter-release program until environmental studies are completed.
In the long-playing Sylvester-vs.-Tweety battles, score a big one for the birds.
"The latest estimates are that there are about . . . 160 million feral cats [nationwide]," said Steve Holmer, senior policy advisor of the American Bird Conservancy, one of the groups that sued the city of Los Angeles. "It's conservatively estimated that they kill about 500 million birds a year."
But Judge Thomas McKnew Jr.'s decision sent a chill through cat advocates, who fear it could discourage municipalities across the nation from employing trap-neuter-release as a way to reduce shelter killings.
"There will be diminished public awareness of the homeless cat situation and the trap-neuter-release solution," said Mark Dodge, founder of the nonprofit FixNation. "More homeless cats get abandoned, get ignored. It will probably mean more euthanasias of cats in shelters."
In addition to barring city vouchers that offset the cost of neutering, the city cannot release feral cats from shelters to organizations like FixNation; conduct public outreach about the program; refer complaints about feral cats to trap-neuter-release groups; or waive cat-trap rental fees. (In the last fiscal year, the city spent about $240,000 subsidizing 8,000 surgeries for stray cats.)
City animal control officials declined to comment. The deputy city attorney on the case did not return repeated phone calls.
Not surprisingly, the ruling set off a flurry of emotional rhetoric.
In one online petition expressing outrage over the "ill-advised ruling," signer Joanna Milkowski quoted Gandhi: "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." Another called on people to "Help the Babies!!!!"
Dodge even suggested that these bird groups are "extremists" who "need to be marginalized" just like "Islamic jihadists."
"It's ugly; it's gotten very vicious," said Travis Longcore of the Urban Wildlands Group, one of the organizations that sued the city on behalf of the birds. "It's not like we've got a vendetta here. This is a real environmental issue, a real public health issue."
Although neutering and releasing the cats "appeals to the illusion of a win-win situation," Longcore said, the birds and other wildlife are losing out. "The fact is, you decide not to kill cats and instead you kill wildlife."
Those cats, Longcore said, often are diseased. And when colonies are fed, the practice often attracts more cats, either from around the neighborhood or because people dump new cats.
At San Pedro's Cabrillo Beach, a feral cat colony resides near where snowy plovers nest, said Garry George, conservation chairman for the Los Angeles Audubon Society. At San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, George said, feral cats have wiped out the California quail population. And in San Diego, feral cats roam free near a habitat for the California least tern, which officials are trying to monitor and protect, he said.
But even if environmental reviews are conducted, the question at the core of the dispute would remain: Does neutering feral cats effectively reduce their numbers?
Longcore, in a paper published in the scientific journal Conservation Biology, suggests that it does not, making him a prime target for cat lovers.
He cited two studies, including one in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Assn., that used mathematical models to determine that 71% to 94% of the cats in a colony must be neutered in order for the numbers to decline. In two feral colonies monitored in Florida, Longcore reported, the population actually increased because people dumped new cats.
In Los Angeles County, the environmental health department said that the approach has been "collectively ineffectual" and that all county-monitored colonies had significantly increased in number. Gail VanGordon, chief of the county's vector management program, said that in addition to colonies not being reduced or eliminated, feral cats create public health concerns that result from feces and fleas.
But inside FixNation, the dedicated army of cat lovers is convinced its work is making a difference. Last year alone, the organization -- one of several in Southern California -- neutered 15,660 feral cats.
Trap-neuter-release advocates say it's common sense: Isn't it better to neuter those cats than to have them out breeding?
"This program has been a boon to animal control folks because it helps them manage an issue in a way that the community approves," said Francis Battista, founder of Best Friends Animal Society, which helps fund FixNation. "If you take feral cats to a shelter, they're dead. Nobody's going to adopt it."
That's part of what drives Roberta Garten, one of FixNation's "master trappers."
She roams the streets of Los Angeles at night in search of feral cats. Armed with a flashlight and a Honda full of a cat's delights -- canned tuna, desiccated fish flakes, sardines, dry kibble and catnip -- she might trap 16 to 20 animals a week. In one two-block radius in Lincoln Heights, she helped trap and fix more than 40 feral cats.
Residents, several of whom feed the feral cats, come outside to help, thanking Garten for her efforts. She's so tuned in to the neighborhoods where she traps that she recognizes each hiding space and kitty, including one particularly stubborn black cat that had been successfully evading her traps and stinky fish.
After a long, cold night of waiting, one curious cat finally wanders into the cage. Garten checks the cat's right ear. It's not snipped, the telltale sign that it hasn't been neutered -- eliciting a "hallelujah" cry of success from Garten.
"I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile," Garten said. "I feel like it's helping this neighborhood a lot."
kimi.yoshino@latimes.com
6 comments:
Would LOVE to see Garten trapping in our stomping grounds!
What is it about us cat people that make us so darn fat, if it's not for the constant upkeep, too many carbos and lack of exercize? I'm looking in the mirror here in this picture....
BTW---are you fixing those cats that are being fed under the dumpsters at the back of the Indian Market? Don't worry about the vouchers. Take them to Fixnation!
There was a young adolescent black kitty eating there and she looked like a female. There are a bunch of other unaltered cats with no ear crops eating from the blue food bowls that are left for them there and they are being allowed to reproduce over and over again.
We already have a zillion cats in that part of the neighborhood and we aren't helping them any by just leaving the food out and turning our backs and walking away without following up with TNR.
Kitten season is here! We are going to end up with a ton of kittens again in that part of town this year again and it isn't fair to them to be left outside in the rain, homeless.
It doesn't have to be this way for them! You need to stay on top of it if you are going to just leave food out for all the neighborhood cats and just walk away without any management or supervision and not follow up by spaying and neutering them BEFORE Kitten Season slams her claws upon us. There are people who are breaking their backs trying to stay on top of it, and it is extremely painful to see those who aren't keeping up with the committment to TNR.
It's a committment we make to the unborn as well as those who are already here. If you are feeding them, you have got to get them fixed.
Remember the TLC Adoptions and Feral Cat Caretaker's motto: If you feed it; FIX it!
That is what FIXNATION is About, Ed. If you can't trap and fix the cats yourself, you need to stop leaving food out indiscriminately.
You know better than that....now come on and get those guys trapped and fixed. Next time I see that black kitty, her friends, and those who are of her generation, I want to see that their ears have been cropped.
Please pass this on to your neighbors and friends who are also feeding indiscriminately without following up with routine TNR and proper, ongoing, feral cat management.
If you can't TNR yourself, then go to LA Trappers and get the gang to help you. You need to get ALL of them if you want to SAVE LIVES, Ed.
The way we do the way lives are saved is through ongoing TNR. OTHERWISE, they reproduce and spread all over the heck around and you end up with starving, unamanged, sick, FIV positive, abcessed, feral cat colonies and dozens of sick, flea-infested, flea anemic, hungry kittens when there isn't enough food to go around for all of them.
It's not only unfair to do that them, it is unjust and cruel. If we feed them, we are responsible for the outcome---what goes in and what comes out. Let's be responsible.
Kianna~
Kianna, I do not take care of those cats. Someone else I will not name does. She spends most of her life feeding, and TNR the cats.
There were 16 cats there four months ago. Nine have disappeared. She saw one being carried off by a coyote.
The cats no longer are fed under the dumpster because someone at the market may be trapping the cats and relocating. I don't know where they are fed now.
But why on earth did you think I managed that colony, and also assume the cats were not being trapped and neutered?
I have helped trap with this woman at other area locations and helped her transport cats to the vet. I know she keeps a close eye.
By the way, I assume you mean the used to be Indian market that went out of business over two years ago at Reseda and Nordhoff.
All the cats at that location have been neutered. If you see problems, don't pass them off to someone else with pointed accusing fingers, fix it yourself.
By the way, there are lots of black cats in the area. I have seem them all over this tract.
Yes...I have picked up a dead coyote (covered in ticks and fleas) right off of Yolanda, just around the corner from where the cats are being fed.
The feeding is still going on there and none of the cats had cropped ears....so many young ones, about 7 months old.
I can't fix the problem, Ed. I used to help a lot of people in the neighborhood and a ton of other places, but I can't TNR anymore. I am not even allowed to trap in my own back yard--- I was ordered to stop trapping "under penalty of prosecution" last March. I'm in their books now. Even when they told me to stop, I kept going because it was kitten season last year, and 7 years before that.
They came down hard on me this time, Ed. I'm not even allowed to trap in my own back yard now.
If I could, I would be out there in a JIFF! I go to the Indian Market all the time. As a matter of fact, I'm going there today to get more hummus, pistachios, pita bread, sunflower seeds and those incredible pre-packaged soups they have in the garlic paste section.
Your friend has been feeding there for a long time, Ed. She still is. The cats who I have seen there are not altered. I think she stopped trapping and hasn't kept up with it.
There are indeed several young black kitties running around at dusk. I love black kitties (I have a 25 pounder)---but those guys are not altered, and that is incredibly sad for them and their babies.
The feeder either doesn't know she has cats out there, or she is aware of the problem but can't keep up if she has a bunch of other feeding stations in addtion to this one.
The food bowls are still there, Ed. If you go out there, you can see for yourself. One of the food plates was sitting outside the trash been between the cinder block wall and the trash can and the food got soaked in the rain.
One of the kitties is a long-hair Main-coon type. He is gorgeous.
I don't want to know the feeder's name, Ed. I don't need to know. It is also not my problem to fix. I am not feeding there and I don't have any communication with this person.
For the sake of those cats and soon-to-be-born kittens, will you you please speak with your friend about TNR'ing those guys?
Maybe she can get help from the group. About two years ago, there were about 25 cats with oodles of litters on the other side on Amigo and Rayen at the mechanics lot and the alley way. I placed an ad on Craigslist for help under the pet section when my husband didn't wnat me adding to my load.
A really super rescuer helped me out with that bunch. Then the cats multiplied again and someone from LA Trappers went out there to check out the situation when I requested help with that location.
If you know the person who is feeding at the market can you PLEASE talk with her? We DON'T want to see any more cats running amuck, homeless and flea-ridden than we already have. Two kittens I took to McClaves had to have blood transfusions, they were so flea anemic. One died on the table and he was revived. He and his sister have had ongoing herpes breakouts all of their lives.
For the sake of these cats, Ed. Please talk with your friend and encourage her to get those cats TNR'red. I sure hope they're not being trapped and relocated by the market employees.
Thanks, Ed.
Kianna~
Kianna,
I don't know what you are talking about. I have gone by that "Indian" market 4 nights in a row and I see no more than 3 cats.
The woman I mentioned does not feed using the blue bowls. She feeds two buildings further South to get the cats away from the corner. I did see two black cats go to the bowls by the dumpster.
She reports there are only 3 cats. I have seen only 3 cats. AND, that has not been an Indian market in over a year. It is now middle eastern and has been for along time.
This is such a tragedy that a city is outlawing the only effective way of managing feral colonies. In the UK we have a pro-wildlife lobby that screams for the abolition of the right to own pet cats and calls for extermination of all ferals and strays. Science proves again and again that nature abhors a vacuum, yet the wildlife extremists are blind to the reality that TNR works beautifully.
The RSPB have at last acknowledged that it is man who decimates wildlife populations, not cats.
I wish you more power and success in your work to help cats and hope that the city sees sense one day.
This is an excellent blog.
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