WHAT
WE DO AND WHY
OUR
APPROACH
What We Do:
We focus on Spay and Neuter and
It Must Be All Three: Community Cats, Owned Pets and Shelter/Rescue Animals!
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No-Kill and Spay/Neuter
How Proactive Animal Sheltering
Is Different
Why Focus on Spay/Neuter?
The No-Kill Movement has made great changes in our animal shelters, changing the focus from euthanasia to rehoming.
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It is a shelter-based approach to killing less and saving more.
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Until we focus on Spay/Neuter, our animal shelters will continue to struggle to tread water.
While no-kill focuses on animal shelters and their operations, Proactive Animal Sheltering takes a broader approach.
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Proactive Animal Sheltering views dog and cat overpopulation issues from a COMMUNITY approach.
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This means it will take a comprehensive approach from all of us to change this - shelters, rescues, pet owners, community cat caretakers, our elected officials and those that live in our communities!
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All must have a voice at the decision-making table.
Did you know that dogs and cats do not undergo menopause? This means that a dog or cat that has not been spayed/neutered will remain fertile throughout their lifetime.
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Dogs can have up to THREE litters a year with up to an average of FIVE to SIX puppies per litter. A dog can reproduce on average at SIX months of age, depending on breed.
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ONE unfixed cat can have up to FOUR litters each year. Each litter has FOUR kittens on average. Cats can begin reproducing at FOUR months of age.
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Not only can dogs and cats reproduce quickly, so too can their offspring.
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This is why we need to focus on spay/neuter. When more animals are fixed, fewer will be homeless and being taken to shelters/rescues and abandoned on the streets. And a fixed animal is a healthier one too!
Community Cats
What Is a Community Cat?
A Community Cat is an outdoor, unowned, free-roaming cat that may be friendly, semi-feral or feral.
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Why Are These Cats Living Outdoors?
These cats may be strays, lost or ones that their owners abandoned on the streets to fend for themselves.
Why Is This An Issue?
The Humane Society of the United States estimates that there are between 30 to 40 MILLION community cats in the United States. Of these, only about 2% are spayed/neutered.
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This is why it is essential that Community Cats need to be part of our focus on spay/neuter. Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate Return (TNVR) is the humane way to address this. TNVR is the process where these cats are humanely trapped and taken to veterinarians to be spayed/neutered and vaccinated. They are then returned to their outdoor homes to live out their lives in a healthy way. For more information on TNVR, please click this link: Community Cats United, Inc.
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These cats did not ask to be living outdoors. And while we would all love to have happy, loving homes for them all, that is not reality.
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Owned Pets
According to a survey from the Humane Society of the United States for 2019-2020, it is estimated that 78% of owned dogs and 87% of owned cats are fixed. A conservative number of unfixed owned dogs and cats is estimated at, based on each household owning only one dog or cat, 13.9 million dogs (unfixed) and 5.6 million cats (unfixed).
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An even greater problem exists in underserved US communities which lack affordable, accessible pet care, including spay and neuter.
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It is estimated that there are 23 million pets living in these communities where approximately 87% are not fixed. People living in these communities love their pets as much as anyone but they lack access to affordable spay/neuter and veterinary services.
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Shelter/Rescue Animals
With so many dogs and cats reproducing, its easy to see why more and more are being taken to shelters and rescues. The numbers are staggering and will not change until we focus on spay and neuter.