Aggie cat services keep cats alive during freezing months
Having recently, perhaps narrowly, survived a life-threatening blizzard, one might wonder how outdoor creatures fare during the worst of the winter months. No need to worry, Aggie Cat Services has fed and prevented frozen felines for eight years.
With the help of Aggie Cat Services volunteers, feral cats are caught with live traps, spayed or neutered, released, and then fed and managed at one of several feeding stations. This four-step system; trap, neuter, release and manage (TNRM) builds healthy, non-reproducing cat colonies throughout campus.
“We’re making a healthier environment for the cats but also a healthy environment for the people,” volunteer Ilona Jappinen said. “We are not in the business of creating cat colonies. We’re making the existing colonies healthier and less numerous.”
Jappinen learned of Aggie Cat Services from a friend and joined after she retired from teaching at USU.
“The idea behind it is that once you have an established colony and they’re not reproducing, they just maintain their number,” Corey Vorel said. “It keeps cats from moving in because they’re so territorial.”
Vorel is the campus volunteer coordinator for Aggie Cat Services. She became involved as a volunteer about three years ago when she was a student and signed up at an Aggie Cat Services booth at Day on the Quad.
As part of the neutering step, cats are vaccinated and treated for any health problems they might have. Veterinary costs are high, despite the discount Aggie Cat Services receives, Jappinen said. With personal and community donations, the cats with high life expectancy are treated. Thus far, only two cats trapped by Aggie Cat Services have been so unhealthy that they needed to be euthanized.
“We don’t want to do euthanasia unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Jappinen said. “When (the cats) are cared for, they have a good chance of having a perfectly normal life.”
Those perfectly normal lives can be advantageous to their environment. According to the Aggie Cat Services website, feral cat colonies, when managed effectively, prove beneficial to communities by keeping local rodent populations under control. Most of the feral cats on campus were dumped or abandoned there, often the result of unprepared owners.
“People think, ‘Oh, they’re cats, they can fend for themselves’,” Vorel said, “but really it’s not that simple.” Though the cats become feral, they were bred to be domestic and therefore are not equipped to survive independently.
“These are domesticated animals,” Jappinen said. “They need people. They depend on people for food and shelter. They live really horrible and short lives.”
Aggie Cat Services offers a way of survival to the feral cat colonies through several feeding stations and insulated, weather-proof shelters on and around USU campus.
“We started out with 250-300 very unhealthy, very unhappy cats,” Jappinen said. “We have been able to reduce and improve that population to about 48 very healthy, very happy cats.”
In accordance with Logan City and animal control, Aggie Cat Services has been working to expand their efforts beyond USU campus and establish a TRNM program in Logan City, said Jappinen.
“If we catch them when they’re young enough we can basically domesticate them and find them homes, but when they’re older it’s impossible to do that,” Vorel said. However, Jappinen said regular feeders tend to bond with the cats.
“We make sure all of our cats have names,” Jappinen said.
Aggie Cat Services functions solely by means of volunteers and donations. With a high student turnover rate each semester, new volunteers are always in high demand. Help is needed for on-campus feeding, something Vorel said requires as little a half an hour each week.
Students are also needed to plan and implement a campus fundraising event still in the concept stage, a fancy-costume Puss ‘n Boots Ball.
A third branch of volunteer work is in surveying Logan City for those who are willing to participate in future feeding stations.
“We’re thinking of calling a meeting amongst the people who hate cats, because we’re doing them a huge favor by reducing the numbers of cats,” Jappinen said. “If you like cats, join us. If you hate or dislike cats, join too, because we’re making them less of a nuisance.”
Those interested in volunteering for Aggie Cat Services should contact Vorel at cory.vorel@usu.edu. Additional information can be found at http://www.usu.edu/aggiecats/.
– noelle.johansen@aggiemail.usu.edu