Thursday, March 27, 2014

MICHIGAN HUMANE SOCIETY TO HOLD FERAL CAT WORKSHOP IN WESTLAND ON SATURDAY, APRIL 5

Trap-Neuter-Return program will reduce
 the number of homeless cats and save lives
Photo used with permission from Michigan Humane


On Saturday, April 5, the Michigan Humane Society (MHS) will hold a feral cat workshop for members of the community who want to help reduce the number of homeless cats and provide feral cats with much-needed care. The workshop, required for those interested in becoming a feral cat colony caretaker and participating in the TNR program, will teach residents how to utilize a “Trap-Neuter-Release” (TNR) strategy, which has proven to be the most effective and humane way of handling feral cats. The workshop is part of an annual series MHS offers in the spring and summer months. The April 5 workshop will be held at the MHS Berman Center for Animal Care in Westland from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

The MHS TNR program gives individuals who wish to manage a feral cat colony near their home or place of employment the chance to provide the animals with vaccinations, sterilization and veterinary care. Caretakers will be trained on proper techniques and equipment to humanely trap feral cats and bring them to the Michigan Humane Society for veterinary care. The animals will then be released back to their habitat by their caretaker.

To register online or for more information, visit www.michiganhumane.org/feral or call
 (248) 283-1000, ext. 127. Space is limited and an RSVP is required.

Providing a TNR service for feral cats is a critical component of lowering the number of unadoptable animals coming into shelters, as feral cats generally cannot be adopted into homes unless they are young enough to be properly socialized with humans. TNR allows the cats to humanely live out their lives in their natural habitat, while preventing them from contributing to the pet overpopulation problem.

The MHS Berman Center for Animal Care is located at 900 N. Newburgh Road.

The Michigan Humane Society is the largest and oldest animal welfare organization in the state. MHS works to end companion animal homelessness, provide the highest quality service and compassion to the animals entrusted to our care, and to be a leader in promoting humane values.

3 comments:

  1. I hope lots of people attend and make a commitment to utilize the program. TNR does work! I recently saw the figures from both our city and local humane society showing what a huge difference our program has made in the last five years. The numbers were amazing. We have drastically reduced the number of complaints about cats in our city and the number of cats being brought into the shelter.

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  2. It's so great that they are having such an important workshop, hope that it is well-attended and well-received.

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  3. It is awesome that they have a workshop to get the community involved in caring for these precious cats!!!

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