Animal Humane Society policy changes raise concerns of an increase in feral cat populations
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The nonprofit organization Animal Humane Society will no longer be providing free Trap-Neuter-Return services under its Community Cats program. The new change could create hardship for individuals and organizations that aid in maintaining the feral, or “community” cat populations.
Pet Project Rescue is a Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization that specializes in spay and neuter programming as a part of their services. Founder Maia Rumpho said the organization helps around 250 local community cats annually with an emphasis in north Minneapolis.
The organization utilized Animal Humane Society’s Trap-Neuter-Return services to help subsidize the costs of helping cat populations in metro communities. Without it, she said they may not be able to reach as many cats or assist individual rescuers that cannot afford to perform the service out of their own pockets.
“People relied on this program to gain access to that vet care that’s just far too expensive for the everyday person to afford, especially if it’s 10 or 20 cats at a time,” Rumpho says.
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Animal Humane Society CEO Janelle Dixon said the organization had been providing free services since 2014, with two of those years using grant funding. The humane society said it needed to shift $3.5 million in their budget due to constraints. Dixon emphasized that spay and neuter services are one of the many offered.
The new spay or neuter fee of $75 per cat is said to help offset the costs of medical equipment and supplies needed. Dixon said charging for the service is not new, as other organizations have been charging for this service already.
"We needed to implement a fee to make it a sustainable program for us,” Dixon adds, “And with that fee, we sterilize the cat, and we also provide rabies vaccines, and PRC vaccines, which is the standard cat vaccine.”
Rumpho said Pet Project Rescue and other organizations will need to fundraise to assist individual rescuers cover the new fee.
The new policy went into effect on July 1.
