The Community Cats Podcast

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Ep176 - Rebecca Jewell Apr 29, 2017

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Interview! Rebecca Jewell, Executive Director of the National Kitten Coalition

"Foster programs are my first love by far."

Rebecca Jewell is the executive director of the National Kitten Coalition. Her family fostered many pregnant cats and litters when she was growing up in Ohio, which inspired in her a love of foster programs. In fact, she built her own foster program from scratch when she first became the volunteer coordinator of a shelter in the DC area 11 years ago—just when she had started to work in the field! After only four years of operation, they had a 97% survival rate for neonatal kittens in the summer of 2010. Since then, Rebecca has been overjoyed to see foster programs become a top priority for shelters. She believes that building strong relationships within your community can make up for a great deal of the lack of monetary resources that so many shelters and rescue programs face, especially since every community has such unique needs. To learn more about the Kitten Coalition, or to download their brand-new Kitten Nursery Manual, please visit kittencoalition.org. You can also follow the happenings at the Coalition at facebook.com/kittencoalition.

Ep175 - Jackson Galaxy Apr 27, 2017

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Interview! Jackson Galaxy, Star of Animal Planet's My Cat from Hell, and Founder of the Jackson Galaxy Foundation

"I was used to not following rules and cats don't follow rules for the most part."

It's the Cat Daddy himself in this special episode of the podcast! Stacy has a fascinating conversation with Jackson Galaxy, the once-musician whose special bond with felines catapulted (sorry!) him to fame as a champion for helping people better understand cat behavior and find creative ways to help them.

Season Eight of his show, My Cat From Hell, opens in late April with Jackson bringing 50 doomed kittens from Los Angeles on a van ride to Denver, accompanied by Kitten Lady Hannah Shaw. Jackson describes a number of the life-saving initiatives his foundation is piloting throughout the country, and gives a treasure trove of advice about what individuals can do to make a difference: "Every something that you do will save somebody."

For more information visit jacksongalaxyfoundation.org.

Photo Credits: All color photos by Andrew Martial. The black and white is Lori Fusaro.

Ep174 - Dr. Theo Capaldo Apr 25, 2017

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Interview! Dr. Theo Capaldo, President and Executive Director of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society

"We really try to fight science with science."

Dr. Theo Capaldo is the president and executive director of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS). NEAVS is committed to ending the use of animals as test subjects, and in fact spearheaded the successful campaign to the use of chimps in biomedical research in the United States. As a licensed psychologist, Dr. Capaldo is concerned about the impact of forced dissection in education as early as high school: she believes it works to eliminate compassion from students of the sciences. She also stresses how ineffectual animal testing is, and encourages constituents of schools and organizations, as well as consumers of animal-tested products, to start local campaigns against animal testing.

To learn more about NEAVS, please visit neavs.org, or visit releasechimps.org to learn about their successful chimp project. You can also call NEAVS at (617)-523-6020 between the hours of 9 AM to and 5:30 PM, Eastern.

Ep173 - Carter Luke Apr 22, 2017

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Interview! Carter Luke, President and CEO of the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA)

"Fall in love with a cat…find a cat and try to help it."

Luke reflects on some of the changes he's seen for cats in his 40 years in animal welfare. His approach is based on building coalitions of different groups who can jointly bring different talents to the table to affect change in the "disease of homelessness" for cats. He was one of the founders of the National Council of Pet Population Study and Policy, which did ground-breaking research on why people resist getting their pets spayed or neutered, and collected objective data on the population of animals in shelters and beyond. Luke credits a "public health approach" to the MSPCA's success in reducing feline intakes into its three shelters, tracking intakes by neighborhood and zip code and targeting spay/neuter outreach in those areas.

Find out more by visiting mspca.org.

Ep172 - Renee Harris Apr 20, 2017

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Interview! Renee Harris, Founder of PAWS to Success Program at the San Diego Humane Society "If individuals took responsibility for their pets, then there would be no indiscriminate breeding." Renee Harris has been volunteering and working in animal welfare since the tender age of twelve, and over her 30+ year career she has seen the field change enormously. She pioneered the Paws to Success program at the San Diego Humane Society, which includes the first orphan kitten nursery of its kind. The nursery provides 24-hour care to bottle babies, and the program saves over 3,000 kittens each year! Renee is concerned about the high rates of euthanasia among cats brought into shelters—from her research of San Diego Animal Control's data, she found that 70% of euthanasia cases were cats who had, in her estimation, fairly treatable conditions. Renee is determined to lower this number, and she wants to start with changing how we socialize and treat feral cats in the shelter. Lastly, she shares with Stacy her ideal plan for her dream cat facility! To get in touch with Renee, you can email her at reneeharris@top2catsconsulting.com.

Ep171 - Sarah Pizano Apr 18, 2017

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Interview! Sarah Pizano, Program Director for Target Zero

"You are doing this on behalf of the cats. Put the nerves on the back burner; it's about saving cats."

Stacy revisits with Sarah Pizano, the program director for Target Zero and the podcast's guest of episode 56. Sarah shares with us an innovative way that Target Zero was able to move funds from a foundation in Cincinnati all the way to the shelters and communities of the Northern Area Kentucky Development District, an organization that does a lot of non-profit work in the human sector but had yet to branch into animal welfare. By partnering with private vets and humane societies in the district, Target Zero was able to provide low-cost spay-neuter to both local shelters and poor families with cats in the area, and has since expanded that project into other parts of Kentucky as well as northwest Georgia. To learn more about Target Zero, please visit target-zero.org.

Ep170 - Brad Shear Apr 15, 2017

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Interview! Brad Shear, CEO of the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society

"We are not here to be exterminators."

When it comes to animal sheltering, Brad Shear has run the gamut of shelter needs and sizes. He started his career in the local shelter of a small city in Colorado, and since then has moved around the country to several different cities to share his knowledge and experience. For the past ten years he has been the CEO of the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society in New York state. His current shelter has a variety of unique programs, such as the option for those moving to domestic violence shelters to temporarily house their pet at Mohawk Humane, and the STAR program, a partnership between the shelter and the sheriff's office that sends dogs and cats to local jails to be trained and socialized by the inmates. Brad shares his journey from traditional sheltering values to the superiority and ethics of TNR, and hopes that, in the near future, shelters will begin to develop sheltering plans unique to cats rather than simply using the same strategies implemented with dogs. To get in touch with Brad, please visit mohawkhumane.org or call (518) 434-8128.

Ep169 - Merritt Clifton Apr 13, 2017

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Interview! Merritt Clifton, Editor at Animals 24-7

"These days, shelters probably see only a fraction of the real numbers of cats in the community."

In this episode, Stacy revisits Merritt Clifton, the editor of the Animals 24-7 news site. This time, Merritt gives an in-depth look at the use of statistics and data in animal welfare. He gives some inside tips and tricks into how one person can estimate population levels of community cats in their area and track that population over time. Merritt advocates for better data-keeping and measuring of statistics in the animal welfare world so that organizations and individual advocates can learn from one another. Listen to Merritt's first interview with Stacy here, or visit him at animals24-7.org.

Ep168 - Beth Clifton Apr 11, 2017

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Beth Clifton, Photographer and Social Media Editor for Animals 24-7

"Take Personal Responsibility with Animals in Need"

Beth Clifton is the photographer and social media editor for Animals 24-7. She is also the wife of previous CCP guest Merritt Clifton, and she cites him as one of the people who changed her thinking around TNR and community cats. Beth has had several jobs involving animals, and when she first started working as an animal control officer, her encounters with community cats were largely negative. Because of this, she didn't think that cats should live outside at all, but when she met Merritt, she began to expand her perspective on these very misunderstood populations. She explains to Stacy her view on feeding stations for community cats and her fear that "random acts of feeding" can actually do more harm than good. She hopes that anyone who chooses to help community cats will do so in a conscious and educated way, and take personal responsibility when handling these wild animals. To learn more about Beth or Animals 24-7, please visit animals24-7.org.

Ep167 - Stacy LeBaron Apr 08, 2017

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Ask Stacy! Stacy LeBaron, Host of The Community Cats Podcast

"This is all about being a family."

As kitten season approaches, guest host Lisa Finkel talks with Stacy about creatively managing community kittens. Describing kitten fostering as a "pre-program" to the adoption process, Stacy offers insight on productive ways to set up a healthy and sustainable foster care program. Many elements contribute to a successful system, from the medical and administrative structure to compassion fatigue support. Lisa and Stacy also touch on the joys of socializing feral kittens, lovingly referred to as 'tiny tigers,' the pros of kitten nurseries, and tips for fundraising during kitten season.

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