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OFF Gets Feral Cats Out Of A Fix

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Published: December 17, 2008

RUSKIN - Love cats, but take issue when the stray you started feeding brings home a passel of friends? Or worse, has a bundle of kittens?
Feral cats are a big problem in Hillsborough County, home to an estimated 200,000 of them. Without alternatives, many end up at Hillsborough County Animal Services and are euthanized because they are wild and not eligible for adoption.

But there are those who truly love feral cats and don't want to see them euthanized, and some are stepping up to help in a humane way.

Feline Folks, a nonprofit group in Ruskin, has started Operation Feral Fix, or OFF, to help combat the problem.

OFF is connected to a philosophy known as TNR, or Trap-Neuter-Return, a program that provides low-cost sterilization and allows the cats to return to the community.

Started in September, OFF's goal is to reduce the free-roaming cat population humanely, said co-founder Judy Stimson.

OFF loans humane cat traps to cat colony caretakers, who trap the cats and bring them to the Critter Adoption and Rescue Effort, or CARE, a no-kill animal shelter in Ruskin.

"For $10, we'll spay or neuter them, give them a rabies shot, treat them for fleas if needed and give them an ear tip," Stimson said.

An ear tip, or tiny clip out of the left ear, is a universal symbol that a feral cat has been sterilized. That way, the animal won't be trapped again unnecessarily.

In some instances, as in a case study in Orlando conducted by the University of Central Florida, cat colonies have been reduced by 95 percent using such programs.

"It really lets a lot of caretakers ... do the right thing," Stimson said.

A volunteer for years at local animal shelters, Stimson said she learned about TNR at a seminar and decided to start a local effort. She and co-founder Mike Bundas pulled it together.

To date, the program has sterilized about 60 cats.

Hillsborough County Animal Services contacts cat colony caretakers by e-mail when a cat with a tipped ear arrives at the Falkenburg Road shelter near Brandon, said spokeswoman Marti Ryan.

"They come in and claim the cats. They know we're not just out to destroy them if we know they have a place to go and they're not bothering anybody," Ryan said.

CARE donates its surgical facilities to OFF on the third Saturday of every month. Call (813) 944-7651 for an appointment.

Meanwhile, to help CARE in its mission as a nonprofit no-kill shelter, local business owner Hillary Stewart is collecting beds, toys, bleach and other necessities for animals at the shelter through Saturday.

"They don't have to be new things," Stewart said. "They can be gently used."

Donations can be dropped off at Stewart's shop, Give A Dog A Bone, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. The store is at 6114 N. U.S. 41 in Apollo Beach.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566.

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