Good for Cats, Good for Wildlife

An announcement I’d been anticipating for months aired on KGW local news last night -- a new campaign and significant partnership between the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon (FCCO) and Audubon Society of Portland.

An excerpt from the FCCO announcement of the It's Good for Cats and It's Good for Wildlife campaign:

What you can do to help cats and wildlife:
* Spay and neuter cats before they reproduce
* Keep cats indoors, in an outside enclosure, or walk them on a leash
* Never abandon an unwanted cat. Abandonment is inhumane and against the law.

And here's the PSA (Public Service Announcement) from the campaign.

I’ve periodically shared with both of these organizations and animal people everywhere the few collaborations around the nation for cats and wildlife (links have long been on my webpages Feral Cats in the News ~ the Feral Cat Blog! and Cat Management in Communities.)

The great thing about this simple awareness campaign is that it addresses some aspects of both 'owned' cat and unowned cat issues simultaneously. That is what I’ve promoted, along with encouraging everyone to be for all species and use nonlethal, nontoxic methods! While Trap-Neuter-RETURN-Manage (TNRM) is progressing nationwide, few communities effectively tackle the issues of owned cats, or the two sets of challenges at once. Frequently, cities and counties finally ’do something’ by trying to enact mandatory licensing, leash and spay/neuter laws or feeding bans -- misguided and wasted efforts!

No need to get stuck on extreme positions for any cat or feral cat issues -- multiple community programs in combination are needed to address cat and other animal issues, without killing. Keep 'em coming!