Pam's TNR Blog - week of 8/16/09

8/16

The monthy clinic in N. Phoenix was on 8/16 this month. We usually do about 50 cats at these clinics, giving caregivers a weekend option in the N. Valley. I was contacted by a caregiver who wanted "me" to trap for her. She had seen the article in the paper and called around to various places and everyone said get "Pam" to trap for you. She was also willing to make a nice donation so this "sweetened the pie". There are so many caregivers wanting help it is difficult to get to them all, but this one sounded sincere and, of course, the nice compliment helped. Of course there were the usual suspects in the neighbood wanting the cats removed and who were threatening to do bad things to them...she definitely needed help.

This was another older central Phoenix neighborhood with a LOT of free-roaming cats. The neighbors had already TNR'd about 10 cats down the street. She estimated there were about 20 cats to TNR. Well, we ended up trapping 22 cats on 8/23 and three the next night for a total of 25.

As often happens 82 cats (not 50) showed up for the clinic on 8/16 so we had to call in a second vet. Fortunately we were able to find one to step in on a moment's notice. There always seems to be not enough or too many cats - well, one thing for sure - I'll never complain about too many cats at a clinic!

8/17 , 8/18 and 8/19

I was set to trap five cats on 8/18 for a lady I'd helped in the past. There was a mother and four kittens. The mother, now an adult, was the one kitten I did not catch last year. This shows that one has to catch ALL the cats in the colony. This does require perservence but it pays off in the end. I caught all five. I had also dropped off 10 traps that same night to someone else who could trap on their own. Well, the 10 cat job turned in to 27 cats over a two day period. Turned out the neighbor had lots of cats and kittens in the back yard.

On 8/19 I ran out of vet slots and ended on back on the Healing Hearts mobile with seven cats. This was truly a "drive by spay and neuter". I backed up to the van, unloaded, and was out of there in two hours. I was able to help out on the mobile. Thanks to Jan and Dr. Kit for helping out in a pinch!

I picked up everyone for aftercare on both 8/18 and 8/19 - It's a blur now just what happened since it is a week later. All I know is I'd helped TNR a total of 57 cats so far that week and had lots of cats in the garage to feed and water each night. The cooler lowers the temperature anywhere between 15 and 20 degrees F.

That evening I was set to trap again at yet another place I'd previously trapped. The caregiver was now in assisted living back east and the neighbor wanted me to help with about 6-7 cats. Another example of where there was one kitten left and the caregiver would not cooperate to allow me back to get it. Now the kitten was an adult and had 5 kittens of her own. This was a bad situation as the home was for sale and the cats were living under the house. I caught all 6 cats including several of the ones I'd previously TNR'd. The eartips were nearly impossible to see. I had to use binoculars to make sure there were only eartipped cats left - even a flashlight does not reveal those small eartips. This is why we now do 3/8" eartips - making subsequent trappings much easier. Wayne Begun (I hope) is also happy about this new protocol...

I tried again the next night but caught nothing but eartipped cats. I thought the week was over except for pickup, aftercare and release of the six cats in on 8/19, but no, there was more...

8/20

I had organized a trapping in a large trailer park for the clinic on Sunday, 8/23 (part of next week's blog). The manager was on board and had contacted the feeders about not feeding. Well, somehow there was a communication problem, probably due to the Spanish/English translation. I got a call mid-morning from the manager of the park and one of the feeders had nine cats in two cat carriers and had brought them up to her office! Now what?

I called in the troops - well that being Suzie of course. We headed to 40th St. and McDowell to transfer the cats into traps. Thankfully I took extra traps as it turned out there were 10 cats - five in each small cat carrier. We transferred them into traps in a sweltering hot bathroom using a squirt bottle, a stick, and lots of patience. The last cat nearly escaped as we did not even know it was in the carrier. One carrier was upside down so the holes were not available for a 'stick' (sedative injections). Turning it upside down was not an option as a cat had deficated in the trap. What a smelly mess. Anyway, I kept the cats all day and night in the traps with the cooler running in the garage. The vet was kind enough to take 10 extra cats the next day, 8/21. That cat hidden in the back of the carrier turned out to be 8 sweeks pregnant. This made all the hassle worthwhile! Seems every day there is a new, never happened before, TNR adventure...

8/22

I released the 10 cats at the trailer park in the early AM. We'd be back down there that night to trap for the Sunday clinic on 8/23. But that trapping episode will be part of next week's blog...stay tuned.

The Spay Neuter Hotline TNR program is now nearly six months old and we have helped about 5,000 cats. We need your help. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to help us help more cats. Or, consider becoming a member of ADLA. Click here to join or donate.

Thank you for your support.

Swine flu, CAFOs, and Antibiotics

There's been a lot of media attention on factory farming, which no doubt has significantly raised public awareness regarding the plight of farm animals. I just ordered "A River of Waste", a DVD on factory farms that includes Paul Shapiro and others. I've also been reading "The Real Cost of Cheap Food", an excellent article in Time Magazine. The article starts out with:

"Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won't bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics."

At the same time I ran across an article "Coalition Defends Animal Antibiotic Use" in Pork Magazine. An industry-based coalition, including the National Pork Producers Council, is defending its use of antibiotics in factory farms, stating:

"The coalition... holds that arguments against the use of antibiotics in livestock and poultry, including that such use contributes to human resistance, are not supported by any conclusive scientific evidence."

Really? No scientific evidence? Guess those factory farmers haven't read the gazillions of peer-reviewed scientific reports including the latest one in Johns Hopkins Magazine:

"Kellogg Schwab, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Water and Health, refers to a typical pig farm manure lagoon that he sampled. "There were 10 million E. coli per liter [of sampled waste]. Ten million. And you have a hundred million liters in some of those pits. So you can have trillions of bacteria present, of which 89 percent are resistant to drugs. That's a massive amount that in a rain event can contaminate the environment...This development of drug resistance scares the hell out of me."



Photo courtesy of Farm Sanctuary


Coincidentally newspapers across the country today are reporting that a White House panel has issued a report warning that Swine flu could hospitalize 1.8 million Americans and kill up to 90,000 this fall, mostly children. Since the start of the Swine flu pandemic, it seems that owners of industrial hog operations have spent most of their time denying any association and trying to get media to refer to the virus as H1N1. Unfortunately for CAFOs, the CDC has confirmed that the Swine flu was first discovered in US industrial hog operations, according to Michael McGregor, MD of HSUS.

So we have a perfect storm - a Swine flu pandemic, antibiotic resistance, and factory farmers with their heads in the sand denying all responsibility, despite the fact that 70% of all antibiotics in the US. are used in factory farms. Worse yet, the CAFO industry is campaigning to kill a federal bill to phase out the routine non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals. Although antibiotics are not effective against viruses, they are a crucial weapon against virus-related secondary infections. This is alarming to me as a registered nurse and parent. My spouse, Cecil Michael, who has practiced pediatrics for over 30 years, has frequently expressed concern over the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant infections in patients, as he stated in the 2006 AZ publicity pamphlet argument supporting Prop 204 which banned confinement of farm animals (ADLA was a sponsoring organization of Prop 204):


"To sustain animals in the crowded and unnatural conditions of industrial farming, antibiotics and related drugs are used in massive quantities. This produces antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can render drugs ineffective in protecting and saving human lives. Children especially are at high risk of infections with drug-resistant organisms linked directly to the agricultural use of antimicrobials...Hundreds of organizations, including the American Medical Association, oppose the routine use of antibiotics as feed additives."


While factory farm lobbyists continue to deny the validity of the vast mountain of peer-reviewed scientific studies, we don't have to let them have the last word. Please contact your Congressional representatives and ask them to cosponsor the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PATMA), which has been introduced in both House and Senate. So far Rep. Raul Grijalva is the only Arizona lawmaker who has signed on to this measure. You can take action at this Pew Charitable Trusts website .

Karen Michael

Pam's TNR blog - Week of 8/9/09

08/09/09

After working at the Tempe clinic on Sunday, Suzie and I met Jan Wilson at my house about 5:00 PM to load up 79 traps into three vehicles. Thank you Bill for washing all the traps from last week! We were headed for Queen Creek to trap 70 cats. The Healing Heart's mobile was to be at a caregiver's property Monday morning to fix them. We caravaned down to what seemed like the back of beyond. When I travel for TNR I usually go to points North and West like Aguila, Prescott Valley or Gila Bend . This was new territory for all of us. Healing Hearts recently purchased a mobile to help spay and neuter for rescue groups. It had been a mobile clinic but they refurbished it and it is now first class. Dr. Slocum is the veterinarian and we all know and love her from the AZ Animal Welfare League. To find out more about Healing Hearts visit their website.

The property we trapped at was sort of a sanctuary for exotic sheep, deer, birds, dogs and of course, feral cats. Yes, 60-70 cats roamed this six acre property. I felt like "a kid in a candy store" and felt this would surely be like "shooting fish in a barrel"! Oh those sayings from my Mom come in handy...I can never remember if it was Shakespeare or Ben Franklin who said them. I just hoped we'd get them ALL in "one fell swoop".!

We trapped until late in the evening and captured about 40 cats. Jan brought plenty of diet Coke and snacks to keep us awake and going through the evening. The cats were stored in the caregiver's garage overnight. We had at least 20 traps out overnight. The drive back on the 202 was scary and at times it felt like driving into the abyss. But we caught lots of cats. One always fears that one's efforts will turn to naught. In fact 40 cats was not 70!

08/10

The mobile fixed 58 cats on Monday having caught 18 more cats overnight. Suzie went back the next night to help with aftercare in the garage and to set more traps. She can give you a rundown on that experience - just ask her next time you see her. I was on to my next trapping job that night. After this, trapping jobs this week seemed pretty tame. That night I had mall job for four cats that ended up being five cats after two nights of trapping. The caregiver had a "bad back". Seems like everyone does these days...must be contagious!




08/11

Took cats to the vet in the early AM. Two more cats were trapped overnight in Queen Creek and were fixed the next day for a total of 60 cats TNR'd. Four kittens were rescued and went to Healing Hearts for foster and adoption. There are 3-4 cats left there to fix and hopefully the caregiver will follow through. Suzie and I headed to Queen Creek late morning to release the cats and pick up our traps as we needed them. The caregiver was not much help which is the case in many situations. Often the feeders offer to help but it is easier to do the job yourself. We loaded up all but 9 traps in our vehicles after the release and headed back to town. It was very hot! Now we had LOTs of traps and covers to wash. Jan brought the remainder of the traps back later in the week.



Picked up cats at the vet for aftercare and set off for the next trapping in Sunnyslope for eight cats. I only caught six , one with the drop-trap. This was a difficult situation. It is a non-profit organization and the feeder was not supposed to feed the cats on the property. Fortunately, one of the volunteers at this non-profit convinced them to let us trap there and she helped me. She had used the Spay Neuter Hotline previously for cats at her home. The second night's trapping was a bust as the feeder put food out as they often do. In between I transported and after-cared 5 cats for another caregiver who lived in a small apartment.

8/12

Took cats to and from the vet again - total of seven; six from the business in Sunnyslope and one from the "bad back" lady. Picked them up for aftercare and set off for a drop-trap job. A note on Sunnyslope...I've been trapping there for years and based on my experience I truly believe there has to be more than 350,000 feral cats in Maricopa County if one looks at number of ferals per square mile. Sunnyslope is an area in North Phoenix originally "colonized" by those with Tuberculosis looking for a cure. The cats were being fed behind an historic house built in the 1920's. Before then patients lived in tents. Makes one thankful for AC!

8/13

Released cats in the AM. Tonight's trapping was interesting. It was at a hospital in central Phoenix. ALL the cats there but two had been trapped by a caring doctor who took on this project, which was an amazing accomplishment. I was helping her catch the last two cats. It was a cool evening and I sat for several hours waiting and waiting for those two cats to go under the dropper. Watching cats can be interesting. Probably not as neat as cable TV but still neat. I caught one right away but the other was a stinker! I'll be back there next Thursday night to try again. I'll update you on my success. I love challenges like this!




8/14

Took the one cat from the hospital plus six cats Roni had trapped to the vet in the AM and picked them up for aftercare in the afternoon. The caregiver picked up the hospital cat. I released the six cats Roni had trapped on Saturday. She caught them all as she usually does. Go Roni! Having a portable drop-trap makes for great trapping when one has a small car.

Trapping can be challenging and exciting. Please consider helping with trapping and transport. We especially need volunteers to help during the week.

8/15

The mobile fixed 58 cats feral cats there the first day and two more the second day for a total of 60 cats TNR'd. Four small kittens were taken in for adoption by Healing Hearts. There 3-4 more to fix and we plan to work with the caregiver to get them fixed. It is often difficult to finish jobs like this. Although we try, the caregivers often are do not cooperate. We encourage people to fix ALL the cats and to watch for additional cats that are not eartipped.




Next week - Two big weekend clinics and more BIG trapping extravaganzas!

Pam's TNR Blog - Week of 8/2 (Part 2)

8/1 and 8/2 ...So now that you know the history of this location, I'll continue. I trapped seven cats for the clinic on 8/2 and one more overnight for a total of eight cats. There is still one young male orange tabby out there but for now this job is finished. These older Phoenix neighborhoods, interspersed with lower-income apartments always have a LOT of free-roaming cats.

Of course there was the usual aftercare on Sunday night and setting more traps for the second night trapping.

8/3

I took in the last cat on Monday and met Suzie at the vet. She had trapped five the night before at two locations. I picked up these six cats for aftercare along with mine before setting out on Monday night's adventure...

When I arrived to trap, the caregiver's relative was there and explained that this would be difficult. Boy was she right! The elderly caregiver had cats in the house and several outside. It is always difficult when one does not know how many cats there are to trap. I set traps in the carport and a while later the caregiver's nephew comes over and a fight ensues between him and his aunt. So now I am caught in the middle of a family feud over the fate of these cats. So the nephew goes in the house and tries to put the cats in traps. Guess what? He gets bitten and has to go to the emergency room! With him gone I begin to gain the caregiver's trust. She now understands that the cats are coming back after being spayed and neutered. Problem was that the nephew wanted the cats gone. A lot of what we do as trappers is working with caregivers who love the cats often so much they do not trust our motives. I've actually had to have them talk to other caregivers I'd helped previously to assure them I was not there to take the cats away.

I ended up with five cats, several from in the house and some outside. One was caught overnight. On the way home I picked up a kitten from a caregiver where I'd trapped a total of 42 cats over a several month period. This was, I hope, the last cat.

8/4

I took six cats to the vet in the AM. On Tuesdays I always take cats to a clinic that helps those in need who cannot afford a donation. Unfortunately we have way too many caregivers in this situation and not enough vets who will donate their time. The result is a waiting list of caregivers needing financial assistance. Most often these are the same caregivers needing trapping and transport assistance due to large numbers of cats, no vehicle, elderly, disabled etc. This waiting list is growing especially due to hard economic times. Please consider making a contribution to help these folks. To donate visit ADLA's donation site.

I picked up cats for aftercare in the afternoon before setting out for Tuesday night's trapping. Then I picked up cats at another vet to aftercare as the caregiver lived in an apartment with no place to keep them overnight (total 12 cats to aftercare). Tonight's trapping was for a caregiver in a wheelchair who clearly needed assistance. Caught two then two more overnight along with the straggler and the location from the previous night's trapping. Unfortunately I caught only the kittens - mom was still out there!

8/5

Released the cats from previous night's trapping. Suzie took back the ones she'd trapped and picked up one more straggler trapped the second night. Our paths crossed at my house when she picked up the cats and then again at the vet. A word about our vets - we love them! Our vets are our most important resource. Without them this operation would come to a screeching halt. Fortunately we have wonderful, caring vets that always smile when they see LOTs of cats. Often we end up with more than we had planned and usually they will fix them. Sometimes we have to shuffle them around town but we always get them done. Once in a while they need to be held overnight and have to go to a vet the next day.

...picked up cats at the vet and more aftercare that night. This night's trapping was for three cats at a trailer park in north Phoenix. I'd trapped in this park several times before and now the word is getting out and management is TNR friendly. After setting the traps at this location I took my drop-trap to get the mother cat left over from the previous night. I had her within 20 minutes! This was especially nice because the caregiver gave us a substantial donation in appreciation for the help. I went back to the park to discover all three cats had been trapped - a nice surprise. I had four more cats that would not be breeding any longer.

8/6

I took four cats to the vet in the AM and picked them up for aftercare in the PM. My trapping job for that night was cancelled as the caregiver fed the cats. It has been reset for next Thursday night...

Mind you there is a lot more going on than trapping in this business. There are calls to return, appointments to set, traps and covers to wash, transport of cats for caregivers, dealing with cats in traps without a plan, spay pack preparation, etc. It is often challenging but I like problem solving and I always say; "if anything can happen to foil best laid plans while trapping feral cats it will". At least once a week someone has a feral cat confined in a carrier and needs it transferred to a trap. Or, the vet calls and someone has not signed their paperwork for surgery. My favorite is when there are 50 cats scheduled for a high-volume clinic and the vet is ill and cannot make it. Or how about dealing with 45 too many cats showing up at a clinic and needing a place to hold them overnight and fix them the next day?

On another important note... there are the three things the Spay Neuter Hotline TNR program needs most to help more cats and caregivers:

1 . Help getting the word out about TNR and our program.

2. Monetary donations to low-income caregivers with TNR.

3. Help with trapping and transporting cats to clinics especially in Phoenix and the west Valley. We're looking for "a few good men (and women)" who like to lift heavy traps with cats, smell cat urine, spend evenings in alleys, and drive a lot...Oh, and do not mind a stinky, dirty car. You can see why there are plenty of job openings!

Next week - Queen Creek

Pam's TNR Blog - Week of 8/2 (Part 1)

8/1 - Trapping

I trapped Saturday night for our Sunday clinic on 8/2. I'd trapped at this location but like many places we go - there is "more to the story". I'll digress with some history...


After having trapped at this location several years ago, I later found the source of the cats... an older apartment complex across the street. Setting out to trap 25+ cats at the apartment where they were being fed I encountered the husband of the caregiver. He refused to let me TNR the cats because he wanted them removed. What a disappointment after I had seen at least four mothers nursing newborn kittens on the small patio. I sat in the parking lot and cried that night.


Forward one year...The complex was being torn down for development into "high-end" condos and residents were being evicted. This was the height of the real estate boom and the owners were hoping to make a killing on the property. Feral cats just did not "fit in" with lofts. A trapping friend who lived nearby alerted me to this situation and she and I decided to try again. The caregiver was still coming to the apartment to feed despite being banned from the property. The apartment windows were shattered and the place was abandoned. Of course now all the newborn kittens I'd seen earlier were breeding adults. We trapped quite a few in the oleanders behind the complex. Then about 9:00 PM we decided to go on the small enclosed patio and discovered numerous covered cat beds. These were cat condos! At least fifteen cats scattered as we approached. Looking under one covered bed we found a dilute tortie nursing 23 kittens! Ages ranged from 1 week to 2 weeks. What a nightmare. Well, to make a long story short, we rounded up a set of industrial two foot-long tongs from the property owner and carefully one by one plucked the kittens from the mother and into a box. Just as the last one was taken out, the mother bolted (Suzie and I trapped her eventually with the drop-trap). All the kittens went to bottle feeders that night and most survived and found homes through a local rescue group. Susie and I later trapped most of the remaining cats. However, those we did not catch ended up at the place I trapped on 8/1. This was the person I had trapped for earlier and we now provide her food to feed the additional cats from the apartments.





By the way the condos never materialized due to the economic downturn. The apartments now have new tenants and there are cats still hanging out in the oleanders...but most of the ones I saw were ear tipped.


Feeding feral cats and not fixing them is, in my opinion, animal cruelty. Unless fixed, fed cats will breed more often and have larger litters. Truly "feral cats" have fewer litters and fewer kittens per litter resulting in smaller colonies. Not fixing ALL the cats , especially the females, causes the remaining females to go into heat sooner so as to maintain the colony size. "Culling" kittens from a colony has the same affect on the mothers. This phenomena is supported by scientific evidence.


So if you are feeding feral cats, please spay and neuter them. Do not feed them if you are not going to fix them. Contact the Spay Neuter Hotline TNR program at 602-265-7729 (SPAY) for assistance.