THE CAT'S EYE PROJECT

The Cat's Eye Project is a group of animal lovers whose purpose is to stop euthanasia of feral and stray cats and promote a program of neutering/spaying. The Cat's Eye Project stands for :

Counties' Alliance To Sterilize and End Yesterday's Euthanasia
"Watching over animals and being their voice."


Friday, November 5, 2010

CATS EYE NEWSLETTER

Wear Orange Ribbon To Alert Unaware Public To Feral Cats' Needs


THE CATS EYE PROJECT
"Watching over All Animals and Being Their Voice" 
CAT'S EYE: Counties' Alliance to Sterilize and End Yesteryear's Euthanasia
OCTOBER 16 IS NATIONAL FERAL CATS DAY
As nationally celebrated October 16 Feral Cats Day nears, all animal advocates everywhere are preparing to spread the word on that day to the unaware public that feral cats are being caught in a deadly overpopulation crisis and these endangered cats need and deserve our help.
About eighty per cent of Volusia County's approximately 20,000 kittens, puppies, dogs and cats taken by animal control to "shelters" to be quickly and routinely killed every year are feral cats and kittens, and other feral kittens are left to starve after their moms are caught and killed.
Feral cats are just normal felines whose once pampered housecat ancestors two or three or more generations ago became lost or abandoned.
Homeless cats and their two or three litters of kittens born every year in the wild survive by joining a feral colony, adapting to living outdoors and learning to fend for themselves. (Many included in the count of feral cats killed are not in truth feral, but are someone's lost pet now living in the feral community.) If former owners failed to spay, colony cats rampantly reproduce.
Determined to reduce the numbers of our endangered feral cat communities, local dedicated volunteer feral cat and kitten rescuers are out in the field every day working hard to trap, neuter and return feral cats or to trap-neuter-and relocate them via foster-and-adoption programs.
Jacksonville-Duval County government and its animal loving citizenry, along with the City of DeLand in Volusia, have set the standard locally for achieving a No-Kill status that includes our feral cats.
Volusia and other counties and cities' governing councils need to copy Jacksonville-Duval and DeLand hastily, because the atrocity of unnecessary killing innocent healthy kittens, puppies, cats and dogs at taxpayers' expense cannot be allowed to continue. Caring citizens WILL stop the killing!
____________________________________________________________________________
Read on pages 2 and 3 of this CAT'S EYE publication the story of how the combined efforts of a few people who decided to become involved and DO SOMETHING saved a family of kittens.
™—~™—™™~~~™—™~~™™ ————^™™ —————"«•"••—— " —— ——™—— —™m»—————— —— ———.l..^—— —••—.__««__ ~>BM______««IHI_____H___V____ ••«••»«•I. ____
And, be sure to take the back page of this publication to Applebee's Restaurant at 2599 Enterprise Road, Orange City on October 14 to earn funds for local animal rescue!


Page 2_____________ The CAT'S EYE PROJECT_________ October 2010
Addressing the feral cats overpopulation problem without killing..


ONE CAT AT A TIME!
Editor's note: Every year five to eight million kittens and puppies, dogs and cats — mostly feral cats — are killed in America, due to pet overpopulation. Trap-Neuter-Return and Trap-Neuter-Relocate volunteers are working to end that tragedy. Just one, two or a few dedicated people stepping up and doing something to start solving this crisis can change everything!
By Janice Potter
One day this past July I was at Dunkin' Donuts in DeLand and happened to look next door at a Rodeo Whip Ice Cream shop. There was a litter of kittens and a very young mama kitty at the rear of the building. I took one of my bags of cat food that I carry with me in my car trunk and walked over there, where I was told by an employee that the owners feed the kittens. I saw bowls outside for food and water, so I left the bag of food.
A couple of days later, I stopped by and spoke with the ice cream shop owner's daughter, Paula Dumas. I asked if they had any plans to try to spay or neuter the cat and kittens. She said she hadn't thought about it, but that she would be willing to help do that.
I contacted my vet, Dr. Bailey at Woodland Animal Clinic. His clinic manager, Sherica Egan, gave me contact info for two local animal activists. I contacted them to see what we could do and one of them, Charlotte Jones, met with the ice cream shop owner's daughter and me. She trained us in how to operate a humane trap. Then, she lent us the trap.
Three of the kittens were trapped the next day and were brought out to the ice cream shop owner's daughter's house. Paula has some land and it would be safer there for the kittens than at the ice cream business fronting right on Highway 17-92.
The other two kittens stayed clear of us. At that point, we had no place to put them anyway, so they had to be left with their mama at that location, though maybe they could be moved out to Paula's house after they were trapped and spayed or neutered.
The next day the mama cat was trapped and brought to Woodland Animal Clinic for spaying and her shots. I purchased a reduced-cost spay-neuter certificate at the Halifax Humane Society on LPGA Boulevard. Dr. Bailey is one of the veterinarians who honor those certificates.
The City of DeLand sponsored a spay-neuter fee reimbursement program until this past September 30 for the city's residents, so I would be reimbursed for the spaying. I returned to the ice cream shop a couple of times soon after we brought mama kitty back to the business location. She looked great and seemed to be doing fine.
We discovered, while I was going back and forth so many times checking on mama kitty and the two ice cream shop kittens, that there was also a whole other litter of kittens there, about a month old. I contacted Teresa of Candy's Cats in Orlando and she told us that if we could socialize these younger little feral kittens, she would be able to get them adopted out as soon as they were ready to eat kitten food. We decided we would go try to catch them and be their fosterers until Teresa could take them.


October 2010


The  CAT'S  EYE  PROJECT


Page  3


Addressing the feral cats overpopulation problem without killing...
ONE CAT AT A TIME!., . continued


Paula and I agreed that we would like also to get that second mama cat spayed. I hoped that all five older kittens from the earlier litter and this new mama could be spayed or neutered before the reimbursement deadline. (Reimbursement requirements specified a veterinarian's itemized bill, a rabies shot and the typical notched ear signifying cat or kitten has been sterilized. To stay informed on DeLand's reimbursement program and whether it might be repeated in the future, contact Antoinette Montanez at the City of DeLand, 386-626-7023 and request a reimbursement form.)





ANIMAL CLINIC
I am thankful for Paula Dumas' dedication in addressing the spaying-neutering issue with the cats that were living behind her mother's business and for her socializing the ones she took to her house, enabling adoption And, I'm thankful for her mother, Joyce Doolittle, owner of the Rodeo Whip ice cream shop at 1250 Woodland Avenue for her love of the cats and her dedication in feeding them every morning. They both are awesome! I'm thankful, too, for Dr. Bailey and his wonderful staff, especially for their flexibility and help with this big project of spaying and neutering this feral colony.
Since that first experience, Paula has become quite an expert in trapping feral cats! The ice cream shop owner purchased a trap, and they have trapped the second young mama cat and another female and one of the male cats. All have been brought to Dr. Bailey for spaying or neutering and shots. The ice cream shop family purchased many reduced-cost spay-neuter certificates provided by Halifax Humane Society. Paula tells me she will continue to trap and neuter feral cats until the entire colony has been sterilized. She told me another of the kittens from the original litter now has joined its siblings at her home.


This whole process was kind of stressful, since it was our first time, but we just wanted to get the job done and make sure those kittens were all safe.
I know this is just a drop in the bucket in addressing the feral cats crisis, but we can address this one-cat-at-a-time. It is a terrific thing these ladies are doing. They are fantastic examples of what happens when people act to make a difference.


October 2010


The CAT'S EYE PROJECT


Page 4


REST FOR WEARY HARDWORKING ANIMAL ACTIVISTS:
EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY AT APPLEBEE'S!
CAT'S EYE EDITORIAL
On Thursday night October 14 - that's just two days before nationwide Feral Cats Day activities -- a brief but reinvigorating respite for animal activists (and anyone else who loves and wants to help animals!) is being provided by our local Applebee's Restaurant in Orange City.
The address is 2599 Enterprise Road in Orange City and the time is from 5 p.m. till 9 p.m.
During that time, ten per cent of your food bill will be donated by Applebee's to a local animal rescue organization for saving and helping animals.
This is a great opportunity to earn much needed community monetary aid for all our animal activists' animal rescues, fostering, adoptions and Trap-Neuter-Retum and it advances our cause of ending Volusia County's and its cities' annual misnamed "euthanasias" of around 20,000 healthy, happy, harmless kittens, puppies, cats and dogs by the year 2014.
All you have to do to contribute to this lifesaving project is to go eat dinner at the Applebee's Restaurant in Orange City between 5 and 9 p.m. on October 14 and hand this page to your server along with your bill.
Please make many copies of this page, give them to everyone you meet, and encourage them all to go eat at Applebee's that evening to save animals' lives!!! Be very sure to remind them they must give their servers' this page in order to get the Applebee's contribution for animals.
Get all your animal welfare friends to join you at Applebee's on October 14 for this rare "R and R" (rest and recuperation) brief getaway from our seemingly endless animals-saving daily sessions. Come meet, greet and get to know your fellow troops in this battle for saving animals!
While there, talk with Applebee's management and schedule your own group's Applebee's evening very soon. This Applebee's project is succeeding in saving animals all around America!

Pasted text from the pages of the paper edition of the Cats Eye Project newsletter.



Saturday, June 26, 2010

COUNTY TAKES ON ISSUE OF STRAY CATS?

By Al Everson
BEACON STAFF WRITER
posted Jun 23, 2010 - 4:49:34pm

In one month this spring, 1,024 stray cats and kittens were taken in by Halifax Humane Society in Daytona Beach.
Of those, 883 were euthanized. 

The tragedy, along with the cost of dealing with cat overpopulation, has the attention of the Volusia County Council.

Upon the recommendation of Animal Services Director Becky Wilson, the County Council on June 17 directed the Animal Control Board to study the stray-cat problem and propose solutions. 

The council was told free-roaming cats account for 75 percent of the animal impoundments countywide, and 80 percent of the animals euthanized at shelters. 

"Cats reproduce a lot. They actually can produce three or four litters per year," Wilson told the County Council. "The number continues to increase, and so does the cost." 

Council Member Carl Persis said statistics show one male cat and one female cat are capable of producing 427,000 descendants over seven years. 

"It really would help if people would keep their cats indoors," Persis said. "Unless they are neutered or spayed, they will do what animals do." 

Wilson's plan for a study of the problem includes asking veterinarians, nonprofit organizations and other local governments to share ideas and advice. 

Council Member Jack Hayman emphasized involving Volusia's 16 cities, because the problem of stray cats is not confined to the unincorporated area. 

"Somebody, somewhere had better get the message to our colleagues in the cities," Hayman said. 

Wilson discussed the possibility of a partnership of local governments and private animal-welfare groups to head off cat overpopulation. She said governmental or private grants may be available. 

Residents attending the meeting offered possible solutions, including broader use of the Pet Vet Cruiser, a mobile spay-and-neuter clinic for low-income residents of the unincorporated area. 

"Open your Pet Cruiser to all residents of Volusia County. That's critical," urged Donna G. Flood, a DeLand resident. "Eliminate the billing issue between the cities and the county." 

Flood also suggested the county do more to protect cats. 

"Build a shelter at Barkley Square, a sanctuary," she told the County Council.
Barkley Square, near the old Plymouth Avenue Landfill northwest of DeLand, is a county park for dogs and their owners. 

"You build dog parks; build a cat park," agreed Bob Baird, another DeLand animal-welfare advocate. 

Baird said he has personally paid to have about 500 strays sterilized.
Kevin Hancock, a spokesman for the Halifax Humane Society, agreed spaying and neutering is part of the solution to the problem of large numbers of unwanted animals.
He said Halifax offers low-cost sterilization, and invited residents to call 386-274-4703 for more information. 

Halifax has temporarily reduced the cost of cat adoptions, to encourage people to give homes to the hundreds of cats flooding the shelter. 

Flood said cat overpopulation has been aggravated by a surge in home foreclosures, as hard-pressed families have been forced to dispose of pets. 

For local governments, the cost of dealing with the problem is rising. The county and many of the cities in Volusia County contract with Halifax Humane Society to shelter and dispose of animals picked up within their jurisdictions. 

Recently, Halifax Humane Society raised its charge to $87.37 — up from $80 — to keep an animal for three days. If the pet is not reclaimed by its owner or adopted within three days, the Humane Society may euthanize it.


Monday, June 21, 2010

ANIMAL ACTIVISTS CONVENE

June 19th about 60 people representing themselves and animal rescue and anti-abuse groups met at the Volusia County Fairgrounds as guests of County Councilman Andy Kelly, his wife Cissy, and his family. During the first hour attendees were invited to introduce themselves and give a brief description of the scope of each group.

Represented were: Sophie's Circle, Rescued Hearts, Angels Have Whiskers, Halifax Humane Society, Dale Arrington, Prison Pups and Pals, The Cat's Eye Project, Bob Baird, Jeanine Colletti, Volusia County Veterinary Medicine Association, West Volusia Humane Society, We Help Animals, Inc., DeLand, Animal Hospital, Becky Wilson, West Volusia Friends of Felines, West Volusia Kennel Club, Tomoka Correctional Institution, DeLand Animal Hospital, A.R.K., Volusia County Spay-Neuter Bus, Concerned Citizens For Animal Welfare, Lake County Animal Control, and others. Many in the crowd were individuals who spend all their extra time and money feeding and caring for abandoned or abused animals of all species, or maintaining a feral colony. Several young people and children helped greet and seat animal lovers when they entered the meeting room.

Mr. Kelly began the program stating that there is no email list for the combined groups and the movement needs a web site and a Facebook page. He suggested that someone might be responsible for keeping the dialogue open between the groups and that public awareness and advertising might bring recognition to the problems facing the county concerning animal control. A representative of West Volusia Friends of Felines offered information provided by an authority on feral cats (Dr. Julie Levy of University of Florida) estimating there may be 4000 to 4500 ferals in the West Volusia area.

The first speaker, Becky Wilson -- officer with Volusia County Animal Control, told the group about the challenges that animal control faces and their many accomplishments in the past.

Dale Arrington also spoke as did several others. We will provide a more elaborate description of the remainder of the meeting when we have double-checked our information.

A second meeting was scheduled for 10 A.M. July 17 at the same location in building 2 behind the Agricultural Center at the Volusia County Fairgrounds. For more information email

ANDY KELLY
(386) 740-5224 Fax: (386) 822-5707
E-Mail: akelly@co.volusia.fl.us

Friday, May 28, 2010

IT'S NOT EUTHANASIA

IT’S NOT EUTHANASIA!

   What’s wrong with this sentence:Six million beautiful, healthy, happy kittens, puppies, dogs and cats are euthanized each year in our country, thousands of them annually in your county, killed by your taxes!Clue to answer: See the dictionary’s definition of euthanasia.

   Answer: IT’S NOT EUTHANASIA!

   Euthanasia is derived from a Greek word that means easy death. If you think “euthanasia is the correct term for governmental kill contracts taken out on dogs and cats, go see how “easy” these life-loving victim’s deaths are. Choose a Kill-Site and go watch sweet-eyed dogs become dogs with terror-filled eyes as, one after the other, they are led from their cages to Death Row and the assembly line killings. Watch doomed dogs drag their feet all the way to the executioners, because they know they are going to die!Easy”?
 
   Observe life flow from the innocents when the official euthanizerssuddenly press a deadly, often painful, heart-stick needle on the trusting, surprised animals’ hearts.

   Witness the executions of tiny, squirming, adorable little kittens mewing in protest of their just-starting-out lives being stolen away from them. See and understand why gentle grown cats are mistakenly identified by euthanizers as feral or “wild”, only because they fought so ferociously to defend their lives from murder.

   Go witness these killings for yourself (if you’re allowed, or can find a way to)  and that horrible firsthand experience will change your attitude toward euthanasia”. If you have a heart, you will immediately be turned into an animal advocate and animal activist. You’ll join the nationwide No Kill movement, like the growing masses of other concerned citizens.

   Unlike the victims of erroneously labeled “euthanasia”, you don’t have to go through all that, not if you can see the truth and comprehend the injustice of this situation just by reading this article intended to educate about the cruel inaccuracy of the word euthanasia.

   “Euthanasia,” by dictionary definition is “the act or practice of killing persons or domestic animals that are hopelessly sick or injured, for reasons of mercy.”

   How, in anyone’s misguided mind, can killing a healthy animal possibly be defended as a “mercy killing”?
   It is time to stop the killing! You, the citizens, working with your local government, have the power to demand reform in national and local animal control policies, choosing life for the animals, not the erroneously labeled “euthanasia, which is not euthanasia at all!

   Simple sterilization of pets is the effective, economical and humane alternative solution for getting our pet overpopulation problem under control without killing!

   Please help us hurry the day when no more innocent healthy cats and dogs will die by humans’ hands and humans’ stupidity. Please do your part to help us take a first step toward creating ositive change by making it a point always to correct anyone you hear or read who uses the word “euthanasia” when referring to the killing of a healthy dog or cat.
 
   Please step in unapologetically and adequately educate anyone and everyone you hear call it “euthanasia”, anytime, anywhere you hear that grievous error, no matter who it was who made that tragic mistake. Make everyone understand: “IT’S NOT EUTHANASIA!”

   We must all effectively repeat these three little words over, and over, and over, loud and clear, wherever we go, until our message is heard and understood and the killing stops!  
  
   Letting it continue being called euthanasia is no mere matter of semantics. It’s a matter of life and death! Please help us make heard our battle cry for the innocent animals who cannot speak for themselves. Shout it out, over and over:IT”S NOT EUTHANASIA!!!
  
  

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

STAMPS TO THE RESCUE


You can now order US postage stamps and help shelter animals.
This is a pane of 20 44–cent Animal Rescue: Adopt a Shelter Pet special stamps.

On April 30, 2010, in North Hollywood, California, the Postal Service™ will issue a 44–cent, Animal Rescue: Adopt a Shelter Pet special stamp in ten designs, designed by Derry Noyes of Washington, DC.

With these 10 stamp designs, the U.S. Postal Service hopes to raise awareness of the need to adopt shelter pets. Go to any USPO web site or search Adopt a Shelter Pet Stamps on Google.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

RAMONA RELATES THE BEGINNING OF THE CAT'S EYE

Two things inspired this new The CAT’S EYE Project blog. One is Que Sera. Once she was my precious lively, feisty and sweetly-semi-ferocious little gray tiger-stripe kitty. Now she is dead, killed by obsolete and senseless animal control policy.

The other is our blissfully unaware human citizenry that, year after year enables with its taxes funding for the barbaric killing of five to eight million other cats, kittens, puppies and dogs in the USA alone.

My Que Sera came into my life as a tiny, terrified kitten clinging to a palm frond being battered by blustery winds from a passing off-shore hurricane. Her deafening, demanding-rescue MEOW screams called me out into the dark night. She landed in my hands. There she was safe forever more, or so we both thought.

This blog is because of a promise I made to my now-dead Que Sera that her tragedy would not be in vain, because her dying would create this blog remembering and  honoring her and all the billions or trillions of other dogs and cats who suffered her same fate of needless deaths over too many dark decades of ignorance.

This blog’s goal is to stop that killing!

Primary purpose of the blog -- and its sister The Cat’s Eye Project publication (via traditional paper medium) -- is to stop the wrongful killing via education.

Specifically, this blog’s purpose is to bring a new depth of understanding to all the blithely unaware mainstream masses of humans who are ignorant about the horrible truth ... that when dogs and cats are taken to humane societies and most other “shelters,” eighty to ninety per cent of those dogs and cats not are going to be not adopted as is commonly believed. 

Tragically, all those healthy, beautiful, innocents will be dead in days! And, unaware citizens paid with their taxes for that hiring of contracted killers, probably never realizing that hard truth.

Shelters are desperately needed, but they need to be No-Kill Shelters. A fast-growing national No-Kill Movement is making progress in making that happen! It’s already happening in DeLand, thanks to wise and progressive governmental leadership willing to work with local animal advocates. Other cities and counties need to copy DeLand! 

This blog also is for the vast growing numbers of hands-on animal activists who work endlessly and exhaustedly to save the life of every individual doomed dog, cat, kitten and puppy they encounter via our far-reaching animal rescue networks and on their own streets. 

Dedicating their lives, as they do, to stopping the senseless killings of innocents is as physically exhausting as it is their personal-budgets depleting. For those tired hands-on rescuers, this blog intends to create a refuge, a restful place where they can retreat for a few essentially needed moments of solace when they come home late in the night to try to relax at last.

We hope this blog will become the activists’ and rescuers’ personal sanctuary, providing encouragement, gratitude, and hope and most of all a few minutes of rare rest and unwinding.

We hope they will find all that in the blog’s planned stories about successful rescues, essays on why they do what they do for the animals, poetry, art and photos about their experiences and the animals they have saved, and other pleasant animal-related literary relaxations, all dedicated to the multitude of wonderful non-human species who share our planet!