Alley Cat Rescue Announces Their Global Feral Fix Challenge

Hello, and happy Friday! I'm here today to tell you about a very important campaign that can change the lives of community cats. Our friends at Alley Cat Rescue have officially announced  The Feral Fix Challenge, an annual initiative to save lives and promote the spaying and neutering of community cats. Let me tell you more about it. 

The Feral Fix Challenge invites veterinarians to get involved with trap-neuter-return (TNR) by providing low-cost or free spay/neuter and rabies vaccination for free-roaming cats. The Challenge is now in its eleventh year and has resulted in the spay/neuter of over 130,000 cats by more than 1,500 veterinary participants. Veterinarians in the USA, Canada, South Africa, Greece, Israel, Japan, Croatia, Antigua, Nicaragua, and India have participated in the challenge. Paws up to all of these wonderful veterinarians for caring so much about community cats! 

Why is this campaign so important? Because it is estimated that approximately 860,000 cats are euthanized in U.S. shelters every year, many of whom are newborn kittens or unsocialized free-roaming cats. That's right, said 860,000! That could have been me if I wasn't rescued from a high kill shelter, and that's why I'm an advocat for pet adoption and for spay/neuter. My sister, Lexy, lived for almost a year in a no-kill shelter. She realizes how lucky she was, and joins me in advocating for community cats. 

If you're wondering why that number is so high, one of the reasons is that kittens and unsocialized free-roaming cats often require a significant investment of time and resources that are beyond a shelter’s ability before they are considered adoptable . The influx of kittens during the spring and summer months, also known as Kitten Season, stretches shelters to their breaking points, which leads to the euthanasia of healthy cats and kittens simply to make room for each day’s new arrivals. How sad is that? 

Louise Holton, President and Founder of Alley Cat Rescue, says “the best way to reduce the number of kittens flooding into shelters is by spaying and neutering outdoor, free-roaming cats. When the breeding cycle is stopped, unwanted kittens are never born, and the adult cat receives health benefits too.” (We have a post on the benefits of cats being spayed/neutered you can read for more information.) We agree with Louise when she says it's a tragedy for 250,000 cats and kittens to be killed every day in shelters, "places that are supposed to serve as a temporary sanctuary and refuge for cats in need." 

Are you a veterinarian reading this article? Are you interested in helping to save cats' lives? If you are, we want to encourage you to get involved in the Feral Fix Challenge. You have the opportunity to dramatically change cats' and kittens' lives by reducing the number of kittens born on the streets and sterilizing adult cats so that they will no longer suffer by giving birth to litter after litter. 

You can pledge to help save the lives of community cats by participating to provide free or low-cost spay/neuter services to as many free-roaming cats as is feasible in your practice. Register to participate in the program here to play an integral role in reducing the number of kittens born on the streets this year and in the future.

If you are a cat lover reading this article, you can still help. You can visit the same link to send your veterinarian an invitation to participate, or for a sample invitation if you would like to invite them personally. 

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Let's save cats' lives! Share this amazing campaign all over social media to spread the word. 

Lola

Alley Cat Rescue is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the welfare of all cats: domestic, stray, abandoned, and feral. ACR advocates for humane nonlethal control of feral cats. For more information, visit their website http://www.saveacat.org.

Photos courtesy of Alley Cat Rescue.