Free Roaming Cat Task Force Recommendations

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DRAFT 4. Pilot Programs The plan for managing free-roaming cats in Orange County includes one or more pilot programs that seek to progressively reduce cat numbers in specific areas. The exact form of these pilot programs will be decided on the basis of experience gained in the formative phases of the plan. Particularly important may be the partnerships that are formed and the capacities that they generate; the lessons learned not only both locally and in other communities across the country; and the degree of community commitment to managing these cats in new and different ways. An important part of these projects will be identifying the specific areas of the county in which there will be pilots. It is hoped that the development of a community database about free- roaming cats (see section 6) will create a basis for identifying areas in which there are more or fewer free-roaming cats and even areas of concentration. Alternatively, it may be possible to use GIS mapping of the cat litters brought into the Animal Services Center in recent years, or animal control complaints about concentrations or colonies of cats. Depending upon a host of variables including resident preferences, there may be pilots that involve sterilizing loosely affiliated and feral cats in particular areas. These may be done in partnership with existing cat caretakers and organizations that currently have low profile programs for sterilizing and releasing feral cats (often referred to as Trap, Neuter, Release or TNR). A critical measure of such efforts would be the demonstrable reduction of cats in these areas. Another important measure would be whether nuisance cat issues and/or complaints decreased. A strong sense emerged from the work of the task force that there are some extraordinary opportunities for coordination between Animal Services and partnering non-profits to address concentrations of cats in particular places in the county. In particular, there was strong interest in exploring a form of partnership in which Animal Services could refer nuisance cat complaints to a partner for assessment and intervention. 7 The form of the intervention by the partnering organization might well include direct outreach and education as well as trapping and sterilizing some or all of the cats identified. 7 An important model for this kind of partnership is the very successful collaboration existing between Animal Services and the Coalition to Unchain Dogs. Residents with tethered dogs are referred to the Coalition for assistance with fence building and the Coalition assumes full responsibility for working with residents who vaccinated and sterilize their dogs to build a fence.