Program:
PetSmart Charities® Reynolds Road TNR Project
- Budget:
-
$18,120
- Category:
-
Animal-Related
- Population Served:
-
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
Feral Fanciers, Inc. received a $18,120 grant from PetSmart Charities® to spay/neuter 510 feral and free-roaming cats in the Reynolds Road corridor area in 33801. The grant will be implemented over two years and will serve a high need area of Polk County, Florida
Program Long-Term Success:
Still underway.
Program Short-Term Success:
207 feral and free-roaming cats and kittens have either been Trapped/Neutered/Returned or Trapped/Neutered/Adopted 7 months into the Program.
Program Success Monitored by:
PetSmart Charities®
Program Success Examples:
Program:
Florida Animal Friend Combee Settlement TNR Project
- Budget:
-
$20,000
- Category:
-
Animal-Related
- Population Served:
-
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
Feral Fanciers, Inc. received a $20,000 grant from Florida Animal Friends, Inc. to spay/neuter 625 feral and free-roaming cats in the Combee Settlement area of Polk County, Florida. This project will be implemented over 1 year and is complimentry to the PetSmart Charities® Reynolds Road TNR Project, as the target areas are contigious.
Program Long-Term Success:
Still underway
Program Short-Term Success:
336 feral and free-roaming cats and kittens have either been Trapped/Neutered/Returned or Trapped/Neutered/Adopted 8 months into the Program.
Program Success Monitored by:
Florida Animal Friend, Inc.
Program Success Examples:
Program:
Best Friends Lakeland Historic Districts Feral Friendly Initiative
- Budget:
-
$8,000
- Category:
-
Animal-Related
- Population Served:
-
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
This is a program to implement TNR and colony maintenance in two historic districts in Lakeland, Polk County, FL. The averaged poverty rate from these areas is 19%. In recent months Feral Fanciers has received several requests for TNR assistance from these areas. These requests include requests from employees at Florida Southern College (in the South Lake Morton Historic district). Representatives from Florida Southern College have been communicating with us on a regular basis and the Director of Security there has approved for us to
come on campus to TNR. We were also interviewed for the school newspaper in January to help educate the students and garner support for the TNR. Also, when contacted, the Neighborhood Association for the Lake Morton Neighborhoods and Dixieland Historic District
confirmed that they do have issues with free-roaming cats. The residents generally support feeding them but are hesitant to pick them up and bring them to the Lakeland SPCA as they would most likely be euthanized. They have expressed a positive interest in TNR as a solution. We spoke in front of the Dixieland Homeowners Association in January and have been invited by the Lake Morton Neighborhood Association to present a tutorial on TNR and a plan to execute TNR in their neighborhoods on February 28, 2012.
Program Long-Term Success:
Wehope to engage students from Florida Southern College to help us with a Polk County Feral Friendly campaign. Representatives from Florida Southern College have been communicating with us on a regular basis and the Director of Security there has approved for us to come on campus to TNR. We have also been interviewed for the school newspaper in January to help educate the students and garner support for the TNR. Through this we hope to educate the general student population about free-roaming cats. Colleges tend to be trouble spots as students do not think to the future of graduating when adopting a cat. This causes a higher than normal abandon rate at colleges and universities. We are also planning to engage the college and its students in some projects to design shelters both at the Polk County Animal Control and on a piece of property owned by Feral Fanciers. This will keep the issue current there. Otherwise, we will continue to raise funds as we normally do to maintain maintenance of the colonies TNR’d. Once we have demonstrated support and outreach in the Neighborhood Association, we hope to gain supporters in the neighborhoods who will help sponsor some of the maintenance. The Lake Morton Neighborhood Association has already told us that we should feel free to solicit support, both financial and volunteer, at the February 28 meeting.
Program Short-Term Success:
We would like to achieve at least a 100% success rate of cats in the target area who have been reported to us (approximately 100 cats) for TNR in the areas outlined above. We feel confident just through the meeting with the Lake Morton Neighborhood Association and the article in the Florida Southern College article we will receive requests for at least 100 more cats. In this particular project we are also going to measure our success through the educational aspect of this program. By giving residents the initial education and support, we feel we can continue to TNR in these neighborhoods through additional donations and fundraising. We believe that this will impact the number of cats euthanized in Polk County. We would like that number to get back up to the 10% reduction we saw in 2009.
Program Success Monitored by:
Best Friends Animal Society will be monotoring our progress.
Program Success Examples:
The program is just begining.
Program:
Christina Feral Friendly Project
- Budget:
-
$2,000
- Category:
-
Animal-Related
- Population Served:
-
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
The funds are to be used to fund unreimbursed spay/neuters of feral and free-roaming cats, as well as adoptable socialized feral kittens and friendly free-roamers in the Christina Park area. We also need vaccinations for our adoptable cats and kittens from that area. The only low cost spay/neuter clinic in that area is the SPCA, Inc. Lakeland. They are currently charging $48 for a neuter and $64 for a spay with a rabies vaccination. The Christina Park is 17 acres and the neighborhood where many of the Christina Park cats either roam or relocate, is north of 540a (a highway), and west of Lake Road, which is approximately 1/2 square mile. All are located in Lakeland, Florida, which is the largest city in Polk County.
Program Long-Term Success:
We measure our impact through the cat intake numbers of the Polk County Sheriff's Office Animal Control and the SPCA, Inc. of Lakeland. There are two aspects to this. First, the percentage decrease overall.There was a more dramatic reduction in cat in take from 2008 to 2009 of about 10%. We believe that we have had a direct impact on that number. The decrease from 2009 to 2010 is less dramatic (3.7%) due to, we believe, the economic conditions which resulted in higher pet abandonment rates and less financial resources for us to grow and expand our trapping efforts. We also measure our success by our ability to have the PCSO Animal Control call us when they pick-up an "ear tipped" cat. The ear tipping of a cat tells them that the cat has been spayed or neutered and has had a rabies shot. We currently have an informal agreement with them to allow us to pick up ferals and return them to their colonies. We track all ferals and colonies coming through us through a simple database that is web based. We can usually identify the caretaker and colony based on where the feral was picked up. By using excel we can also sort data and create statistics by whatever criteria we choose to track. As previously stated, our biggest obstacle is funding, not the volunteer manpower willing to give their time for trapping and adoptions. Given the funding, we do not feel there is any reason not to reach new record level of spay/neuters of feral and free-roaming cats in Polk County.
Program Short-Term Success:
The program is just begining.
Program Success Monitored by:
The Build-A-Bear Workshop Foundation
Program Success Examples:
The program is just begining.