The Community Cats Podcast

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Mike Keiley (MSPCA) & Carmine DiCenso (Dakin Humane Society), "The Mike & Carmine Show," Part I Jul 14, 2018

Show notes

Stacy speaks with Mike Keiley, the Director of Adoption Centers and Programs at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA), and Carmine DiCenso, Executive Director of the Dakin Humane Society in Leverett & Springfield MA in this first part of "The Mike & Carmine Show." You can check out Mike's first visit to Community Cats Podcast in 2016 in Episode 9

Both Mike & Carmine have been in the animal welfare field as long as Stacy has, and the two of them speak together regularly at conferences and programs. Both recognized as leaders and innovators, they discuss many topics with Stacy in this episode, including the trends and changes they have seen with community cats over the years. When Mike started in animal welfare, there was an overwhelming number of cats. In general, people felt that they were simply dealing with an unwinnable situation, with no room for strategy. In the last five years, however, the MSPCA has formulated strategies for their adoption program, their targeted spay/neuter programs, and for dealing with different populations of cats in different ways. "We are now at the point," Mike tells us, "where, largely, in New England, we are not dealing with an overpopulation of cats any longer." — which is something he would not have imagined when he first started in the field.

Carmine's experience has been fairly similar to Mike's, but he adds some words of wisdom to folks who feel they will never be able to get to where New England is, telling us that it's good to start to look at trends in numbers. Once you do, you'll start to see declines and patterns that will help things not seem so bleak. To the people who say that there are pockets of New England where there are still overpopulation issues and people are still overwhelmed, Carmine would challenge them by asking whether what your organization is experiencing is truly overpopulation and being overwhelmed — or whether it is a lack of ability to let go of animals in your care.

Mike & Carmine go on to talk with Stacy about their community outreach programs, and how there is a big need for more low-cost services, particularly around dental care for pets. They also answer this question from Stacy: "You each have $100. You can divide it up between low-cost spay/neuter for cats, TNR, or an adoption program. How would you divide up that $100?" Listen to find out how what they say, and why both Mike & Carmine feel that animal welfare organizations are going to morph more into helping animals where they are — vs. taking them from whatever situation they are in.

To learn more about Carmine DiCenso's organization and their work, visit dakinhumane.org. You can also email Carmine at cdincenso@dakinhumane.org. To learn more about Mike Keiley's organization and their work, visit mspca.org, or email Mike at mkeiley@mspca.org.

Ellen Quinlan, Executive Director of Darbster Foundation Jul 07, 2018

Show notes

Ellen Quinlan, Executive Director of Darbster Foundation, was one of those kids who always brought home every stray animal she found, and that passion for helping animals has stayed with her as an adult. The mission of Ellen's group is to reduce the number of adoptable cats, kittens, dogs, and puppies that are being euthanized in Palm Beach County and south Florida by partnering with shelters and rescues in Florida to transport pets to rescue partners in New Hampshire and throughout New England.

The Foundation is mostly self-funded through several businesses it runs, including a vegan restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida, and a pet boarding facility on the Manchester, NH property. The Foundation initially funded many spay/neuter projects in Florida, but over the years, the landscape has changed, with many groups receiving major grants from large grantors, meaning there isn't as much need for funding from groups like Darbster. So, in 2015, they turned their focus to transport. At the time, there wasn't much interest from New Hampshire shelters, so Darbster decided to buy their own property in Manchester, NH and get licensed with the state as a shelter.

They began by doing a survey of all the shelters in NH, because they did not want to bring animals into an area that already had enough adoptable animals. Ellen is very clear that Darbster never wants to displace native or local animals. Their cat transports are generally 16-20 cats at a time, and they are flown to New England after undergoing all required veterinary care (including spay/neuter) in Florida and receiving a health certificate. After the cats arrive in New Hampshire, they are quarantined for 48 hours, and then are checked by a local vet and receive another health certificate before being released for adoption.

Ellen tells us that she has seen positive changes in Palm Beach County for animals over the years Darbster has been operating. There is a lot more Return-to-Field happening, and the live release numbers have improved dramatically, going from 29% when Darbster began its work, to 65% currently. In 2015, Darbster transported 231 cats and kittens, and that number skyrocketed to 1,163 in 2017. Darbster is continuing to work on parterning with more shelters, so their transport numbers continue to increase. They are opening a dog facility in Chichester NH this summer, and are hoping to open a small clinic with lower cost veterinary care there within the next year.

To learn more, visit one of Darbster's websites at darbsterkitty.com, darbsterfoundation.com, or darbsterdog.com– or check out the corresponding Facebook pages.

Chad Nelson, Advocacy Director at PawsWatch Rhode Island Jun 30, 2018

Show notes

Interview! Chad Nelson, Advocacy Director at PawsWatch Rhode Island

"Tons and tons of cat lovers have no idea … that there's this whole population of cats that really need our help."

Chad Nelson, a lawyer by trade, is the Advocacy Director at PawsWatch Rhode Island, an all-volunteer network for community cats. Chad came to his work in TNR and cat issues through an initial interest in the broader animal rights and vegan movement. His cat Dagney inspired him to look at the world through animals' eyes, and once Chad started to read Nathan Winograd's work, he realized that cats and dogs still face serious issues in this country.

As Director of Advocacy at PawsWatch, Chad's role is to go out and educate the community, attract new people to the organization, and make people aware of what they're doing and the issues that cats face. He takes a lot of pride in trying to convey a message that's simple and basic, and that people who have no idea about the issues can absorb in a five-minute sound bite. The biggest challenge, Chad tells us, is helping people understand that the issues cats face are serious – not just for the cats, but for people, too.

All in all, Chad feels that cats are doing pretty well in Rhode Island, much like they are in the rest of New England, but that there's still a ton of work to be done. The state is progressive in that groups actively practice TNR, and in that the major shelter in the state is on board with TNR and RTF (return-to-field) and the broader issues cats face — but Chad feels that in spite of all this, the policy makers at the government level don't really get it that there's a cat problem and that there's a proper way to address it.

To learn more about PawsWatch and their upcoming targeted TNR project in the city of Providence, visit pawswatch.org, or look for them on Facebook or at their brand new Instagram page @pawswatchri.

Joyce Briggs, President of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs Jun 23, 2018

Show notes

Interview! Joyce Briggs, President of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs

"I am determined it's going to be my legacy in this field that we get the tools that we need to really reach the cats we want to be able to help."

Joyce Briggs, President of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs (ACC&D), told us all about how she got started in the field in Episode 157. She's back this time to talk to Stacy about the ACC&D symposium that's being held in Boston, July 22-24. The three-day conference kicks off with a reception – and a refresher class on dog and cat reproduction! – on Sunday evening, and then goes into two full days of content, featuring over forty speakers.

ACC&D is focused on non-surgical approaches to fertility control, and Joyce herself is particularly passionate about that in regards to community cats. She knows how difficult it can be to have enough surgical resources out there to help the number of community cats that need it, and she feels that non-surgical sterilization can be a great addition to our toolbox.

The July symposium will round up all the work that's been done in the field, and showcase the newest work and developments as well. There will be a major focus on two particular questions: How would a product be implemented in the field? and How do we make decisions ethically? Joyce encourages cat advocates – from higher-ups in the animal welfare world to those doing "boots on the ground" work – to attend the symposium, as she feels that it's critical for the people working on designing non-surgical sterilants to understand what's important to those working in the field.

To learn more about ACC&D and the July symposium, you can visit acc-d.org.

Richard Angelo, Legislative Attorney for Best Friends Animal Society Jun 16, 2018

Show notes

Interview! Richard Angelo, Legislative Attorney for Best Friends Animal Society

"Getting those community cat programs started, where cats are not even entering the shelter… it's so key in saving lives."

Richard Angelo, a legislative attorney for Best Friends Animal Society, is a long-time animal welfare advocate who fell into animal law when he ran across the story of a pit bull in need of help. He simply couldn't walk away, and with that case, his move into companion animal law began. For years, Richard had a private legal practice dealing with companion animal issues, and towards the end of that part of his career, he began to get more and more involved with community cat caretakers and the issues they were facing with ordinances that prevented or curtailed TNR efforts.

It was around that time that Richard saw an ad for a legal position at Best Friends. He got the job, and he's been going strong ever since, working on a huge variety of animal-related issues around the country, including legislation around community cats. Richard is very proud of the work Best Friends does to make rapid, lasting changes in the cat live release rate in shelters around the country through community cat programs.

As a member of the American Bar Association (ABA), and vice-chair of its Animal Law Committee, Richard helped convince the ABA to pass a resolution in support of TNR in 2015, making them one of the first non-animal organizations to do so.

Richard advises folks who are having a hard time getting TNR programs going due to legislation in their area to open upon a dialogue with their local shelter and community leaders — and to arm themselves with good data and success stories. He and Stacy both encourage listeners in these situations not to give up. Stacy urges us not to walk away from the cats, as there is always a way to get them the help they need, even if there are ordinances in place that make it more difficult.

To learn more about Best Friends Animal Society, visit bestfriends.org. You can also sign up for legislative alerts specific to your area at bestfriends.org/action, or you can email Richard Angelo directly at richarda@bestfriends.org. To learn more about the American Bar Association's Animal Law Committee, visit apps.americanbar.org, and you can see their TNR resolution by clicking here.

Niki Cochran, Program Manager at Alley Cat Rescue Jun 09, 2018

Show notes

Interview! Niki Cochran, Program Manager at Alley Cat Rescue

"Just because you're getting the [positive] combo test … that doesn't mean 'death sentence'. That means 'OK, now I have to go and educate myself about what that combo test result is.' "

Niki Cochran, Program Manager at Alley Cat Rescue in Washington, DC, has been a cat lover her whole life. Her career in animal welfare began when she took a job as an animal control officer, and included time spent at a large, open-intake shelter. At that shelter, she worked with a team of progressive veterinarians who challenged long-held beliefs about Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and Feline Leukemia (FeLV) — including the belief that cats who test positive for these diseases should not live with other cats.

In this episode, Niki and Stacy debunk several commonly held myths about FeLV in particular, including the idea that FeLV is extremely contagious, and that cats and kittens with it always live shortened lifespans. They also talk about the idea that FeLV and FIV+ cats can in fact co-exist with negative cats in home (and colony) environments. Niki herself has a cat with FeLV who is healthy, happy, and living safely with non-FeLV cats. Those cats are properly vaccinated and combo tested regularly, and have always remained negative.

Niki feels that changing attitudes about FIV and FeLV is all about education. She encourages people to educate themselves and others about the diseases, and to refrain from thinking that a positive test result is necessarily a death sentence. She and Stacy discuss why community cat colonies should not be combo tested, and they encourage all of our listeners involved in rescue and adoption to give the next FeLV+ cat they come across a chance!

To learn more, visit Alley Cat Rescue's website at saveacat.org or email Niki at acr@saveacat.org.

Dr. Philip Bushby, Professor of Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare at Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine Jun 02, 2018

Show notes

Interview! Dr. Philip Bushby, Professor of Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare at Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine

"I long for the day when I can walk into a shelter and not find any cats in the shelter — and it's achievable."

Dr. Philip Bushby, a veterinarian and well-known advocate for early age spay/neuter, can't remember a time that he didn't want to be a veterinarian. He became interested in veterinary medicine at a very early age by helping nurse sick puppies back to health, and then, at veterinary school, he fell in love with surgery. It wasn't until Dr. Bushby did an internship at an ASPCA (then animal control) animal hospital in New York City in the 1970s, however, that he began to learn about the staggering pet overpopulation problem this country was facing.

Today, as Professor of Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare atMississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Bushby is passing on his passion for spay/neuter – especially pediatric spay/neuter and how it can help end pet overpopulation – to students through the school's innovative programs. Beginning in the early 1990s, Dr. Bushby began bringing veterinary students into animal shelters around Mississippi to perform spay/neuter surgeries, and today the program has grown to include two mobile surgical units. Most of the surgeries are done by the students, under proper supervision, and most students graduate having performed at least 75-85 spay/neuter surgeries through the program—far more than a typical veterinary school graduate. Dr. Bushby hopes that his students leave his program with an understanding of the issues shelters face and the issue of pet overpopulation — things Dr. Bushby himself was never exposed to as a veterinary student.

Dr. Bushby is also a very strong advocate of the Feline Fix by Five program, which encourages private practice veterinarians to spay/neuter cats by the age of five months, rather than the old standard of after six months of age. He feels that if everyone began following this program, and if everyone was supportive of TNR programs, we could fix the feline overpopulation problem.

Many groups, from professional veterinary associations to animal welfare organizations, have endorsed the concept of early-age spay/neuter, and while Dr. Bushby understands that embracing this idea means a major change in mindset for many veterinarians, he hopes that eventually, we will all realize that not only is there no harm in spaying/neutering cats by the age of five months, the benefits are enormous. If vets — or the general public — aren't able to change their mindset, however, and get on board with helping actively solve the pet overpopulation problem, Dr. Bushby feels that the least they can do is to stop working against those whoareactively working to solve it through high-volume spay/neuter and TNR programs.

To learn more about the Feline Fix by Five program, visit felinefixbyfive.org. To learn more about Dr. Bushby's work and his programs at Mississippi state, visit the Facebook page for Humane Ethics in Animal Welfare at facebook.com/msuethicswelfare or email Dr. Bushby at bushby@cvm.msstate.edu.

Michele Tilford, Cat-Assisted Therapy Advocate May 26, 2018

Show notes

Interview! Michele Tilford, Cat-Assisted Therapy Advocate

Michele Tilford has over five years of experience as a cat-assisted therapy handler—but when she first became interested in cat-assisted therapy, the only programs she could find were for dogs. Eventually she connected up with a service dog trainer who also happened to be a Ragdoll breeder. The woman agreed to help Michele train one of her own kittens, later adopted by Michele, and the rest is history.

Michele explains that one of the biggest keys in deciding whether or not your cat might be a good therapy cat is his or her personality. A therapy cat should ideally be calm, curious and outgoing. The cat can then be trained to become comfortable with unfamiliar surroundings and with wearing a harness, being in a carrier, and traveling.

There are three different groups of therapy animals, Michele explains. One is what are called emotional support or comfort animals. These can be any kind of animal and are generally just a personal pet that receives no training. All that is needed to certify a comfort animal is generally a doctor's note.

An animal-assisted therapy animal is one that has some basic training and works as part of a human-animal team. Cats in this category—like Michele's cat Kokoro—need to be able to understand a couple of commands, be leash and carrier trained, and be comfortable with loud noises and being touched.

The third category is service animals. These are highly trained animals who are trained to assist people with specific tasks. Right now in the United States, only dogs and miniature horses can be registered as service animals.

Michele explains that many other countries use cat-assisted therapy far more than we do here in the United States, where cats still seem to be maligned as therapy animals. Michele and others are working hard to change that mindset, however, by bringing cats to a variety of institutions like retirement homes, schools, and even libraries, where cats assist with reading programs for kids. Michele is a firm believer that cats can bring a huge benefit to the people they visit!

If you are interested in training your cat as a therapy cat, Michele encourages people to look up Love on a Leash and Pet Partners to check out their requirements for certification. Any cat can be a therapy cat; they don't need to be purebred or have any extraordinary characteristics. In fact, Michele states that 98% of the therapy cats she knows were rescued from shelters! Getting your cat certified does require a bit of commitment, but Michele assures those interested that you will get every bit as much from the experience as the people you and your cat visit!

To learn more, visit facebook.com/TherapyCats, or you can join the invite-only Facebook that Michele helped found at facebook.com/groups/TherapyCats.of.the.world.

Kim Freeman, Professional Missing Cat Finder May 19, 2018

Show notes

"I would really like anyone who has anything to do with lost cats to realize how important it is not to give up, and not to assume anything."

Kim Freeman turned her lifelong love for cats into a career as a professional missing cat finder. When her own cat Mr. Purr went missing in 2008, Kim realized how little support families with a missing cat receive, and what bad advice they tend to be given. She set out to change this and today has developed a very specific process to help people all over the world find their missing cats.

Kim starts by educating the cat's owners using a downloadable online booklet and videos on her website. She then asks the owners to fill out an extensive cat profile questionnaire so that she can determine a search strategy. Kim tells us that there are eight probabilities of what could have happened to a missing cat, and her questionnaire, which asks about indoor behavior patterns, helps determine which of those probabilities is most likely. Based on the results of the questionnaire, Kim then coaches the owner on what they need to do to try to find their cat.

When Kim does in-person searches, her cat Henry sometimes accompanies her. Henry is trained to track scent, and she often uses him in cases where an indoor-only cat has escaped outside. Kim knows of only one other trained search cat out there, but she believes that it is a great way to go, as search dogs are more likely to scare off a missing cat than find it.

Kim is also passionate about the role shelters play in reuniting lost cats and their families. Nationally, the return to owner rate once a cat reaches a shelter is a dismal 2%. Kim feels shelters can help get this rate up by becoming a resource for the community around best practices for searching for a lost cat—or by directing the community to resources that can help. She believes strongly in Return to Field, and in microchipping as well. She would love to see shelters offer mobile, low-cost, in-home microchipping! Kim has a presentation on simple system that shelters can use to organize their lost and found data that she is glad to share if folks want to get in touch via her website.

Finally, Kim would like to spread the word about the "litter box myth"—the idea that if your cat goes missing, you should put out her used kitty litter box to attract her back to the area. Not only does it not work, Kim tells us, it is actually a bad idea because it can attract wildlife and predators, as well as territorial bully cats who may chase your cat farther away. As Kim puts it, "your house smells more like home than a kitty litter box!"

Learn more about Kim and her services at lostcatfinder.com. You can also stay up to date on her happy reunion stories on her Facebook page, facebook.com/LostCatFinder.

Dr. Sara Pizano, Veterinarian and Animal Welfare Consultant - Part 2 May 12, 2018

Show notes

Interview! Part 2 - Dr. Sara Pizano, Veterinarian and Animal Welfare Consultant

"You don't need millions of dollars—you need to allocate your pie of resources intelligently … that's really the key."

In part 2 of our two-part episode with Dr. Sara Pizano, she talks about the big picture in animal welfare these days, and about where she feels the focus should be for the future.

Dr. Pizano discusses her recent work on steering committees with Best Friends and Million Cat Challenge. Best Friends, she tells us, has the goal of making this country no kill. They focus on shelters with the highest euthanasia numbers, and then ask them what they need and how Best Friends can help them connect to the resources they need. It's all about strategizing around support for shelters that still use euthanasia for space/population control.

Meanwhile, Million Cat Challenge has already exceeded its goal of saving one million cats. Dr. Pizano believes that this program is a phenomenal example of what we can do just by connecting people and helping/supporting them. She believes that everyone who cares about cats, whether they work in the field or not, has a role to play in helping cats.

For Dr. Pizano, the most important things we need to do as we move into the future of feline welfare are to keep cats out of shelters no matter what, and to increase access to spay/neuter, especially subsidized surgeries for community cats. She encourages people to remember that no animal ever wants to be in a shelter, and that going into a shelter is always going to have negative consequences for the animal. The goal, she feels, should be for shelters to become community animal resource centers, with sheltering only for animals that are victims of abuse, neglect, or true abandonment—in other words, animals that truly have no other place to go.

Dr. Pizano recognizes that it is hard for many people to figure out how to raise money without adoption fees, but she feels we all need to consider what making money off adoption fees says about how we are helping animals. She feels that we need to learn how to be good fundraisers and raise money in ways other than adoption fees, and that we need to help our funders come along to this perspective as well.

If your group or shelter needs help, Dr. Pizano's consulting firm, Team Shelter USA, can likely assist you with its soup to nuts approach to animal welfare services. In addition, Dr. Pizano encourages everyone in the animal welfare world to connect with others, to become part of Million Cat Challenge, and to become a Best Friends Network partner so that everyone can get the help they need and know that there's a better way than using euthanasia as population control.

To get in touch with Dr. Pizano, email her at drpizano@teamshelterusa.com. To learn more about Million Cat Challenge, visit millioncatchallenge.org. To learn more about Best Friends and their partner program, visit bestfriends.org.

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