Vance County Animal Control is presently under the caring watch of Mr. Alex Hargrove.
He and his devoted staff find themselves in a situation that only the citizens of Vance County can change.
The Alley Cat Allies home page contains a bold statement, “Over seventy per cent of cats brought into animal shelters are killed.” Mr. Hargrove presented a staggering statistic in Sunday’s October 5 Daily Dispatch i.e. approximately 1500 animals arrived at the Shelter since July 1, 2008. There is another way. The following true store happens hundreds of thousands of times in villages, cities and counties across the United States and Earth. It is presented as an example.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, but before the watch of Alex Hargrove, a devoted son and his mama lived in the vicinity of the Vance Medical Arts Buildings on Ruin Creek Road. They shared the area with possums and coons and others. Honey Bun was a healthy orange and white tabby cat. Her son, Carolina Jim, was a healthy tri-color. I brought fresh water and food twice daily to the woods and talked to them. Slowly they began to trust and allow me to touch and then to pet them. Unknown to me, a young kitten was found in the parking lot of the dialysis center at the Vance Medical Arts Buildings. Vance County Animal Control was called. Traps were placed. Honey Bun went in; Carolina Jim did not. Animals considered a public nuisance are to be impounded and held for redemption for 10 days per Sections 7 and 11 of the Vance County Animal Control Ordinance. Honey Bun was trapped on a Tuesday. She was euthanized on Friday, Day 4, of the same week. When Honey Bun did not come to eat for several days, I began inquiries. I left a message at the Animal Control Center on Day 8. Could it be that being a public nuisance might have saved her life?
Thursday, October 16, 2008 is National Feral Cat Day. Alley Cat Allies originated National Feral Cat Day. Alley Cat Allies advocates for the lives of these feral cats and for the population control method of trap-neuter-return for these cats.
A feral cat is not tame; she does not readily accept handling. He may have been born in the wild and live self-sufficiently without human contact as a hunter. She may have been abandoned by her caregiver or strayed from home and then reverted to wild, being fearful of humans. He may be the offspring of the preceding. Perhaps she relies upon humans for food. A feral cat might be a working barn cat, an orphaned kitten, a cat still living outside an abandoned home or at the recycling center or behind the strip mall’s dumpsters, or the soon-to-deliver female who wandered in from who knows where and decided to adopt you but flees from you on sight. A feral cat generally is not a talker.
After being humanely trapped, a feral cat is neutered by a veterinarian and safely returned when fully alert and medically stable to her former home, if appropriate. Some trap-neuter-return programs crop the tip of the left ear while the cat is anesthetized to indicate that the cat has been neutered.
Volunteers for one trap-neuter-return group, Operation Catnip, have been at work within the Four County Area for years. Colony caretakers helped recently by J.L Harris of Operation Catnip include couples William & Linda and James & Ruby. William & Linda bought a small acreage on which stood an old barn which sheltered a feral cat colony. Together they decided to care for the cats. Linda has observed that since the cats have been neutered the cats are healthier and more harmonious. James & Ruby have an acreage in rural Granville County. When an adjoining woods was deforested for development, the feral cat colony living in that woods lost its shelter and food source. James and Ruby’s farm was overrun with a multitude of multiplying cats.
A clutter of feral cats claimed the no-man’s land between two adjoining Four County apartment complexes. A hub of five women residents from both complexes took on the task.
Trap-neuter-return programs are blossoming everywhere — often at the request of municipal governing bodies and sometimes at the request of animal control personnel. It can be safely said that there are hundreds of households in the Four County area that are feeding well and giving satisfactory shelter to cats and dogs who arrived at their doorsteps by ways and from points unknown. Some of these households, though both resources and time are limited, take these unclaimed guests to the Spay Neuter Assistance Program of North Carolina (SNAP) or to the veterinarian to be sterilized. SNAP’s telephone number is 919.783.7627. SNAP charges $70 to neuter/spay a non-feral cat. A pregnant female can be aborted for $90. A feral cat can be spayed/neutered for $50. A lower price may be available to qualifying individuals. SNAP regularly brings its mobile clinic to Henderson, Oxford, Louisburg and Warrenton.
Our universe is a dynamic puzzle in which each of us holds a place, connected to those with whom we fit who are in turn connected to others. Recall the Bible’s parable about the beggar Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16. Dogs came and licked the sores on Lazarus’ body. If you have ever been sick, felt disconnected, or felt left for dead, then recall who came to remind you of your place in the wholeness. For some of us that was an animal – a feral cat – sent from the wild.
Margaret J.Peck
Henderson