Augusta considering new program to help stray cats while dropping euthanasia cases
Augusta commissioners are set to decide on a new program Tuesday meant to help stray cats and save them from euthanasia.
The Cat Community Program would create a new humane society team responsible for picking up and providing veterinarian services to Augusta's healthy stray cats. This would mean Augusta Animal Services would no longer have to come pick up the cats, hold them, and possibly euthanize them at the end of a holding period.
This is a collaborative effort between multiple organizations, including Best Friends Animal Society, whose Shelter Collaborative Program Director Carrie Ducote has been presenting the program to the city over the last few weeks.
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"This is a really difficult task for anybody to have to be responsible for euthanizing animals day in and day out," Ducote this week said during an Augusta Committee meeting. "So when I talk about trapping and euthanizing cats being inhumane, I don't just mean for the cats, I also mean for the city employees."
Here's how the program would work: Calls about healthy stray cats would be diverted from Augusta Animal Services to the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia. Those calls would be answered by a local representative who would be responsible for addressing residents' issues, tracking the cats and transporting them to the humane society for any needed surgery.
Twice a week, there will be a mobile unit on Augusta's streets staffed by the humane society. Cats would be scanned for chips, vaccinated, spayed and neutered, then released.
Humane Society of Northeast Georgia CEO Allison Mayfield said they have seen significant progress with this program since they introduced it in Hall County, Georgia five years ago.
"Our save-rate for cats was, five years ago, at about 20%," she said. "I'm happy to report that our save-rate for cats last year was 92%."
The program would go active for three years. Ducote said Wednesday that they are still nailing down some of the financial details, but they are looking at $150,000 in the first year. Her animal humane society is providing the local humane society with the grant funding needed to carry out this program.
Augusta Animal Services Director James Hill said they have been working closely with the humane society on this program and, if funding was to become a problem for the organizations, he would be interested in supporting it.
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"Operationally, I think it's a win situation for us," Hill said. "It's less that we'll have to focus on with cats. We won't have to set traps, and just by the nature of the math, if we're not picking the cats up, than there's less cats that we have to euthanize."
If approved, Ducote said they could activate the program immediately and start their mobile unit's training, which should only take about two weeks.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: New cat program for Augusta to help strays, decrease euthanasia cases
