Last Sunday, 38 more cats were sterilized as part of the Miami Beach 3000, bringing the program 364 spays/neuters closer to their goal of sterilizing 3,000 homeless cats on Miami Beach.
Stray cat overpopulation has been a problem on Miami Beach since the late 1800’s, when cats were brought to the area to combat the rat problem. Over time, cats began to breed uncontrollably and now The Cat Network is working with the city to break this cycle.
The Miami 3000 began last September and its goal is to offer one low cost (even free, if donations allow) spay day per month, toward a goal of 3,000 stray cat sterilizations. The response has been outstanding; Miami citizens are stepping forward each month to fight the overpopulation problem, volunteers are trapping the cats and veterinary professionals are offering their services at no cost. Last Sunday’s event saw 38 cats spayed and neutered. Charlene Grall, President of The Cat Network said, “We’re just trying to control it through humane methods. We don’t want the cats killed; we just want them to stop reproducing and live out their natural lives. That way, the population will decrease over time.” In February, the City of Miami Beach awarded The Cat Network a Proclamation of Recognition for their efforts toward sterilizing the free-roaming cats on Miami Beach.
According to the Miami 300 Causes page on Facebook, here’s how individuals can assist their critical work.
1. If you live on the Beach, contact us to report a colony of stray cats. [email protected]
2. If you enjoy hunting adventures, join us in cat trapping expeditions. NOTE: we advocate TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return), meaning all the cats we trap will be returned to their original location sterilized, eartipped for identification and rabies-vaccinated.
3. DONATE
- TIME: We want to offer these surgeries for as low a cost as possible, even FREE. But we cannot do it without your help. If you are a veterinarian, veterinary student or veterinary technician; donate some hours working in the comfort of our state of the art spay/neuter vans.
- SPACE: We need air conditioned space, like a large room 30 ft x 30 ft or larger to house the cats after trapping and after surgery in the areas where we are concentrating our trapping efforts. We promise to clean up afterwards!
- MONEY: On average It costs us approximately $40.00 per cat to sterilize and vaccinate. All cats receive antibiotics, pain medication and a rabies vaccine. Since we are an all volunteer organization we rely on donations to fund our efforts to help homeless cats. We are currently seeking to raise money to help defray the cost of the spay days. Anything you can donate would be greatly appreciated.
- PUBLICITY: Get the word out there! Donate radio and television PSAs. Come out and film us for social media publicity. Put an ad in the local newspapers.
The next dates for Miami 3000 are Thursday, April 21st and Saturday, May 7th. You can learn more about Miami Beach 3000 on The Cat Network site, The Cat Network Facebook page, or their Facebook Causes page.
Yippee … that’s awesome !
i hope when theyre all left out,residents from there are generous enough to feed them if they cant give them homes…