A new organization called the Carroll County Cat Coalition has been formed to help build a healthy volunteer workforce interested in helping take care of feral cts or tame cats without owners in Carroll County, from Alpena to Holiday Island.
Samantha Jones, volunteer coordinator for the Carroll County Cat Coalition, said the program is designed to help cut down on the number of free-roaming cats while ensuring free-roaming cats aren’t spreading disease.
Working in cooperation with Good Shepherd Humane Society, the Cat Coalition has identified three areas of need for its trap/neuter/spay/vaccinate/return (TNVR) program: 8th Street in Green Forest, the Eureka Springs Historic Loop and an area on Highway 62 between Eureka Springs and Berryville.
“Please volunteer,” Jones asks. “We need fosters, trappers, communicators, and fund raisers. This will be a huge, multi-year project and cannot be done without the community.”
Free-roaming community cats are present in most communities, said Cole Wakefield, executive director of Good Shepherd Humane Society
“Where there are people, there tends to be cats,” Wakefield said. “Carroll County is no different. Many of these cats are somewhat friendly and used to people, but don’t have a traditional ‘owner’. They are cared for/fed by the community. A smaller number of the cats may be truly feral, or uninterested in any human interaction. This program seeks the most positive, humane outcome for both types of cats.”
Wakefield said cat colony sizes tend to grow in proportion to resources, and if they are being fed deliberately or have access to food waste, populations can grow.
“Free-roaming cats, like any species, impact the environment around them,” Wakefield said. “There is a lot of hype about their true impact, and it is probably not as dramatic as many have suggested. But they are predators, which is one reason why it is important that we proactively manage cat populations. Intensive TNVR programs have been shown to be the most effective and humane way to manage populations.
“However, the life of a free-roaming cat can be challenging, which is why we are working to reduce the numbers of new cats through spay and neutering. All cats who come through the program will receive vaccines and any needed care. Free-roaming community cats and domestic house cats are the same species and can transmit disease to each other. However, domestic cats that are vaccinated with the recommended core vaccines are at little risk.”
ABCBirds.org says free-roaming cat populations have been identified as a significant public health threat and are a source for several zoonotic diseases including rabies, toxoplasmosis, cutaneous larval migrans because of various nematode parasites, plague, tularemia and murine typhus. Wakefield thinks that overstates the situation.
“I would disagree with the label ‘significant public health threat’,” he said. “Neither the CDC nor the State Health Department has made such a declaration. Most popular pet species and many wild animals carry some sort of zoonotic risk. This risk is generally low, otherwise, we wouldn’t have the animals in our homes. According to the CDC, birds are actually one of the greatest zoonotic risks to humans, thanks to the influenza virus. Still, name any popular pet and I can probably give you a scary laundry list of possible zoonotic concerns.”
Wakefield said striving to humanely manage Carroll County’s free-roaming cat population through TNVR is only part of the program. They are also working to identify colonies around the county and to connect with caregivers so that those colonies can be managed according to best practices and targeted for the TNVR program.
He said while some people may take issue with one or more parts of the program, it is important to remember that there is currently nothing being done to address this issue.
“Good Shepherd is partnering with concerned community members to take on this challenge and is committed to doing so in a way that reflects best practices and science,” Wakefield said. “We would love to see a world where every cat had a home, but we must acknowledge that we are not there yet. And while we seek to prevent new free-roaming cats from being born, we will not condemn the existence of those who are already here.”
Jones said people who want to help can join the coalition, which can be found on Facebook by searching for Carroll County Cat Coalition. She said a small group held its first meeting recently and is looking to grow that number to build a healthy volunteer network. She and Wakefield plan to talk with the Green Forest City Council about setting up the TNVR program and one of their coalition members will get a count of the cats on 8th Street so they have an idea of what they are working with.
“We will keep posting in our Facebook group and talking about the coalition to get more people involved,” Jones said. “The coalition won’t be successful without a strong team working behind it, and that team needs to keep growing.
“We are also committed to encouraging fostering. My husband, Gideon, and I currently have nine foster cats in our house – Mama Cat Madonna and eight babies: Peach, Screamer, Skunk, Crescent, Rhonda, Frodo, Sam and Peanut. Earlier this year, we fostered a litter of seven kittens plus mama and found homes for all of them. Fostering is so valuable because those sweet babies grow up in a home with other animals and people, where they can roam freely. They are more comfortable during meet and greets and transition into their forever homes is much easier. We keep up with the people who adopted our kittens, and they have all made a great transition into those homes.”
She recommends reaching out to Good Shepherd if you are interested in fostering. They currently have multiple kittens now, but people can foster one adult animal at a time if that is their preference. “Everything helps,” Jones said.