Operating Room


Operation PETS: The Spay/Neuter Clinic of Western New York, Inc.
3443 South Park Ave.
Blasdell, NY 14219

Location of the Feral Cat FOCUS Spay/Neuter Clinic
Feral Cat Focus Appeals for Help
by Debra Durkee, Reporter

The already overworked personnel and volunteers at Feral Cat Focus are now appealing
to the community, hoping that volunteers will step forward and help with what’s becoming
an overwhelming problem.

“We’d like to ask people in the community to not just feed the feral cats in their
neighborhood, but to take it upon themselves to get the trap, bring it into the clinic, and get
the cat spayed or neutered,” says Karen Ogiela of Second Chance Sheltering Network,
Inc. “We thought that the time is right for people to step up to the plate. We just can’t be
everywhere.”

Rescue groups like Second Chance are teaming up with Feral Cat Focus and Western
New York’s low-cost spay and neuter clinic, Operation PETS, to help take some of the
pressure off shelters staggering under the number of stray, homeless and abandoned cats.

Now, they’re looking for more volunteers to be willing to take responsibility for their own
neighborhoods, to set up humane traps and to take the feral cats in for not just spaying or
neutering, but for vaccinations as well.

Altering a cat has other benefits besides the obvious. It makes the cats less aggressive,
less territorial and less likely to fight. They’re also less likely to wander, stabilizing the
existence and makeup of their colonies.

“We’re willing to assist anyone, and to lend them traps,” says Edie Offhaus from Feral Cat
Focus. “Look into your own neighborhoods, and help the animals there.”

While many people feed and even provide shelter for the feral cats living in their area, it’s
not enough – and it can even just encourage the problem.

And spring is the time when that is the most obvious; kittens are cute, but the ones born to
feral cats have limited options. They can become feral themselves, adding to the
population problem and continuing on to have litter after litter of their own.
They can be trapped and turned over to a rescue shelter, who then has the problem not
only of finding them homes, but of socializing them as well. Feral cats are largely
unadoptable, and will never be socialized enough to tolerate an indoor existence. Many
shelters will not accept feral cats or kittens.

Or, they can be killed.

Feral Cat Focus is trying to avoid having to find a solution to the problem by lessening the
problem at its core. By spaying and neutering the members of a feral cat colony, the
numbers will begin to regulate themselves. But with a problem this widespread, they can’t
be everywhere – that’s why they’re hoping people will step up.

There are several programs in place to help make the spaying and neutering of feral cats
affordable and easy on everyone. Operation PETS is one of the clinics in the area that
takes ferals, but they do ask that individuals call ahead.

Second Chance and Feral Cat Focus both stress that while strays have a chance at being
rehomed, feral cats are, for the most part, destined to live and die outside.
So, they’re doing all that they can.

“They’re spayed or neutered, they’re fed, they’re healthy, and right now, that’s the best we
can do,” says Ogiela.

And as feral cats are descended from house cats and pets that were once abandoned or
who strayed form home, it’s only fair that humans help to fix the problem that they largely
created.

Second Chance has also been running the Spay/Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) for
eight years. The program is available to the public who are interested in spaying or
neutering their cats. For more information on SNAP, call 652-1359.

Interested parties should call Feral Cat Focus at 888-902-9717 for all the information that
they need to get started.

Feral Cat Focus is also online at www.feralcatfocus.org. Second Chance is available at
www.secondchanceshelteringnetwork.com.
NO BIRTH IS THE FIRST STEP TO NO-KILL,
FERAL CAT FOCUS SPONSORS GALA EVENT

Every day, compassionate people across Western New York provide care to feral
and free roaming cats. Feral Cat FOCUS Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated
to raising awareness of and maintaining the health and welfare of feral (wild) and
free-roaming cats living on the streets of Western New York. We advocate for a
humane and non-lethal approach to feral cat population. Feral Cat FOCUS works
with feral caregivers to spay or neuter feral and free-roaming cats through a Trap-
Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNVR) program (feral cats are sterilized, vaccinated and
returned to their habitat and provided with long-term care by their caregivers).

TNVR has been shown to be the least costly as well as the most efficient and
humane way of stabilizing feral cat populations. Per Edie Offhaus, co-founder of
Feral Cat FOCUS, “the primary objective of Feral Cat FOCUS is to reduce the
overpopulation of feral and free-roaming cats in WNY by encouraging individuals to
implement a feral/free-roaming cat TNVR program in their local community. Through
our affordable TNVR spay/neuter clinics Feral Cat FOCUS has been very successful
in spaying or neutering approximately 4,000 feral cats across Western New York,
preventing the births of thousands of unwanted kittens.

Feral Cat FOCUS would not be able to continue our mission without generous
donations and money raised through fundraisers. We are holding our annual
fundraiser “FUSION” on April 10, 2010 at Romanello’s South Restaurant, 5793
South Park Avenue, Hamburg from 6pm-9pm. FUSION is a spectacular event
offering a delicious multi-station dinner (out of respect for all animals the dinner is
vegetarian). Live entertainment will be provided by the Irish band CAIRDE. Silent
Auction and Theme Basket auction. Tickets include dinner and open bar with wine,
beer and cocktails. Pre-sale $30; $35 at the door. For pre-sale visit www.
feralcatfocus.org or call 1-888-902-9717.
For information on how you can help feral cats in your community visit www.
feralcatfocus.org.
PO Box 404, East Aurora, NY 14052
1-888-902-9717 (toll free), www.feralcatfocus.org