This lecture was presented by Dr. Kate F. Hurley at the Midwest Veterinarian Conference in February, 2016. The Million Cat Challenge is a five year, shelter-based campaign to save one million cats from euthanasia by standardizing five initiatives in North American shelters. This presentation is focused on Removing Barriers and Return to Field, two initiatives of the Million Cat Challenge. This presentation assumes some familiarity with the topic. If you'd like to learn more, the slide deck titled The Million Cat Challenge will provide a nice starting point to understanding the Challenge and the five initiatives.

1. The Million Cat
Challenge:
Diving deeper with
Removing Barriers and
Return to Field

2. Return-to-Field
“Sterilize, vaccinate, and
return healthy un-owned
shelter cats to the location of
origin as an alternative to
euthanasia.”

3. Return to Field (RTF)
(aka Shelter/Neuter/Return)
• Sterilize/vaccinate/return
to location found
– No feeder required
• Targets healthy unowned
cats brought to shelter
• Direct impact on shelter
population and
euthanasia
• Addresses impracticality
of sheltering all cats
3
http://www.animalsheltering.org/resources/al
l-topics/cats/managing-community-cats.html

4. Dear Million Cat Challenge...
How does R2F work
logistically? Is the "trapper"
responsible for picking up the
cat after sterilization to return
to the field or is it up to the
staff?

5. Partnerships for success
• Transport to the shelter
• Admission/Documentation
of location for return
• Sterilization/vaccination/
recovery
• Return to habitat
• Public education/nuisance
mediation
• Follow up with
caretakers/traditional TNR
www.catcenter.org

6. Dear Million Cat Challenge...
What about a friendly, healthy,
altered cat without identification
that is brought in by a person who
saw it in their neighborhood, put it in
a crate and brought it to a shelter?
No "trap" involved.

7. Which cats qualify?
• Healthy
• Stray/un-owned
• Adults and older kittens
• Behavior depending on
adoption/transfer
capacity
• No imminent
danger/environmental
concern at location of
origin
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http://www.aspcapro.org/god-help-
the-ones-that-purr

8. Dear Million Cat Challenge...
How do you handle the
situations when people
bring cats to the shelter
and are emphatic that
they don't want the cats
back?

9. Sharing the good news?
During the first several months of the
program, animal control officers and
intake desk staff told people dropping
off nuisance cats that the cats would
be sterilized and returned. This
resulted in many heated discussions
and complaints from citizens. So, JACPS
decided to take cats in and gather the
needed information without getting
into the specifics about what would
happen next. This policy has resulted in
far fewer complaints and less stress for
the staff involved.

10. “But I don’t want that cat back.”
• Return location is local –
not adding any new cats
• Identify and solve the
actual problem
• Educate about deterrents
• Offer help with solutions
• Give it time
• Use discretion on case by
case basis
• Remember it doesn’t have
to be perfect at first

11. Impact on citizen complaints
11
• 755 targeted community cat spay/neuters over 2 years
• Complaint calls declined from 1032 to 166
ICMA/HSUS Community Cat Management Guide, page 31

12. Impact on citizen complaints
12
• 1188 targeted community cat spay/neuters over 2 years
• Complaint calls declined from 1958 to < 200

13. Dear Million Cat Challenge...
How have other shelters
financed their return to field
programs? We’d love to do it
but we don’t exactly have bags
of cash laying around…

14. Options for funding
• National and local grants to
get started?
• Public funding?
• Fees for healthy stray
intake?
• Start small and work into
existing surgery schedule?
• Utilize volunteers for
transport and
communication
• Savings from ↓ intake over
time may offset costs
14

15. Can your community afford NOT
to RTF?
Our cost to care for a cat is about $200, and our cost to s/n is
$67. We also take in 3,000 fewer cats per year since the program
began. We never added extra money for this, we just shifted
costs by moving the qualifying cats through the shelter and
back out as fast as possible. One of the more compelling
arguments I've seen for governments is future cost control. If
you don't invest now, costs will continue to rise at a greater
rate in the future. If you do invest now, you can reduce
cat intake and costs over time...and the bonus is, they won't
have to do it using lethal control. win win!
- Jon Cicirelli, San Jose City Animal Services
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16. Dear Million Cat Challenge...
local TNR and rescue
allies are afraid that it
is too cold or the cats
won't be cared for.
Any advice?

17. Will they be ok?
“When we started Feral Freedom in Jacksonville we
microchipped all of the cats in the first 13 months of
the program to track exactly that (5,640 cats were
processed). The animal control officer designated for
picking up the DOAs had a scanner on his truck and
would check both for an ear tip and a chip. We had one
instance where a cat from our downtown area had
wandered up one of the bridges and been hit by a car,
but otherwise, there were no other reports.
Cameron Moore, Target Zero, Jacksonville, FL

18. Cold climate
Although complaints have dramatically lessened over the
years, every now and then I hear these worries, not from
people who have actually seen a cat freeze to death, but
people who just can’t stand the thought of a cat living
outside during a Michigan winter. I do sympathize with
those feelings (I HATE HATE HATE thinking of a cat cold and
hungry), but logic and experience tell me that by and large,
they are okay out there. A few of these people have
stopped donating. Such is the nature of the business. “You
can’t make all the people happy all the time.”
Tanya Hilgendorf, Humane Society of Huron Valley

19. Survivors
“there is no apparent relationship between
estimates of feral cats and latitude or January
temperature in southern Canada (Table 2), and
feral cat numbers may be significant in parts of
Alaska”
Blancher, P. (2013). "Estimated Number of Birds Killed by House Cats (Felis catus) in
Canada." Avian Conservation and Ecology 8(2).

20. Opening doors
• Feeding cats is a reality
• Non-lethal programs
open lines of
communication
– For cat protection
– For nuisance mitigation
20

21. Mitigation
21

22. Dear Million Cat Challenge...
We do return to field and have saved
close to 1,000 cat lives over the past
three years. The shelter we work with
requires that the cats are combo
tested. Would you recommend
continuing this practice?

23. Model 1
No sterilization
No testing
Model 2
Sterilize 1,000
Remove FeLV+
Model 3
Sterilize 2,000
No testing
Percent FeLV+ 4% 4% 4%
Adults sterilized 0 1000 2000
Adults left intact 2000 1000 0
FeLV+ euthanized 0 40 0
Adults left FeLV+ 80 40 80
Kittens born 6000 2880 0
FeLV+ kittens (75%) 180 86 0
Total FeLV+ cats 260 126 80
Mass sterilization controls both kitten births and spread of FeLV/FIV
Thanks to Julie Levy for this slide!

24. Dear Million Cat Challenge...
What is your
response to bird
lovers who are
opposed to having
cats returned?
What do you say to
public health officials
who are concerned
about rabies or
toxoplasmosis being
spread by cats?

25. Remember this
25

26. Reality check
• At least 50% removal
required for eradication
• ~ 30-80 million un-
owned cats in the U.S.
• ~ 2 million cats
euthanized in US shelters
• Increase of 8-20x
required for eradication
• Removal short of
eradication has no
benefit

27. Worse than nothing?

28. Did it work?
• “Contrary to expectation, the relative
abundance and activity of feral cats increased
in the cull-sites, even though the numbers of
cats captured per unit effort during the culling
period declined. Increases in minimum
numbers of cats known to be alive ranged
from 75% to 211% during the culling period,
compared with pre- and post-cull estimates.”
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29. 29
R
RT

30. 30
R
RT

31. 31
RT
Rabies risk from cats
decreased by 11%
Toxoplasmosis risk
unchanged

32. 32
R
RT
Rabies and
toxoplasmosis risk
from cats decreased by
33%

33. 33
• Cats picked up dead down 20%
• Intake (cat and kitten) down 29%
• Euthanasia down 75%
• Euthanasia due to URI down 99%

34. WOW!!!

35. 36
Once we fully implemented
our program, the only real
regret we had was that we
didn't start it sooner
Jon Cicirelli, City of San Jose Animal Care Services, San Jose, California

36. Removing Adoption Barriers
“Expand the pool of adopters
by removing barriers to
adoption such as price,
process or location.”

37. Removing Adoption Barriers
• Acknowledging that people
who want cats, will get cats
• Higher risk adopter = all
the more important to get
a shelter cat
• It’s ok if it doesn’t work out
– They learned something
– You learned something
about the pet
– The pet got a little break

38. Shaping the path to adoption
• Consider:
 Price
 Convenience
 Location
 Application process
 Emotional experience
39

39. Why people choose cats
Weiss, E., K. Miller, et al. (2012). "Why Did You Choose This Pet?: Adopters and Pet
Selection Preferences in Five Animal Shelters in the United States." Animals 2(2): 144-
159.

40. Not ideal
41

41. Putting things in perspective

42. Putting things in perspective
35 times
more

44. It’s ok to relax a little
• Even stringent disease
control measures may not
be enough when the shelter
is crowded
• Less stringent disease
control that ↓ LOS,
maintains C4C and ↑
adoptions often better for
health
• Use your common sense
but don’t be afraid to
experiment
– Especially adult cats and
foster return healthy kittens
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45. What about price?
• Increased length of stay =
crowding = costs for daily
care, illness, lower morale
• Decrease costs or increase
income by means other
than adoption fees when
lives are at stake
• Evaluate cats early to
determine adoptability;
don’t wait weeks to make
them free

46. Hidden cost of fees
“I do want to share some warm fuzzy! We have simply
lowered our adoption price (from $110 for kittens and
$75 for adult cats to $50 and $25 respectively) and now
we cant keep cats in the shelter. I was shocked by the
difference! Yes this is the slow season but the crickets
are chirping here!”
WOW!!!
January – March 2014:
Length of stay: 19 days
Live release: 52%
January – March 2015
Length of stay: 8.5 days
Live release: 81%

47. Another kind of magic number
I played around with the adoption prices. Adult cats
that have been in the Shelter for awhile have their
adoption fee reduced from $145 to $95 as an incentive
for adoption. The program was stalling. I tried $50/cat,
but that was still too high. I tried $25/cat, but people
just thought there was something wrong with the cat
and avoided it. I tried $45/cat, and that was the magic
number for people on PEI.
Erin Mullen, Prince Edward Island Humane Society

48. Dear Million Cat Challenge...
Doesn't waving adoption
fees bring into question the
value of life? If the adopter
cannot afford the fee, can
they afford care of the
animal?

49. Dear Million Cat Challenge...
What about animals that don't get
returned - escape from unsafe
homes, fall from high rise
apartments without nets on the
windows or other things that could
be avoided with home visits?

50. Dear Million Cat Challenge...
Should contacting a landlord
be important? I personally like
to be able to check with
regards to if they are allowed
an animal and also use said
landlord as a reference.

51. Remember this
American Pet Products Association
Survey 2012

52. What we CAN control if people
adopt from us
 Whether people get a cat that is already
spay/neutered, current on vaccines, microchipped.
 Whether people get some guidance and advice on
selecting an appropriate pet.
 Whether people get education and advice on how to
introduce their new pet to their home and provide it
with medical and behavior care/training.
 Whether people have a resource if they need help, to
avoid the pet ending up back in the shelter in the
future.
 Getting back a healthy, adoption-ready animal if for
any reason the adoption doesn’t work out.

53. Good news

54. Cats acquired as strays or with minimal planning are
less likely to be relinquished to a shelter
Studies show…
There is no difference in attachment levels or
perception of shelter between adopters of full price
and fee-waived cats
There is no difference in subsequent care or
attachment levels between adopters using a policy-
based versus conversation-based process

55. DO…
• Have conversations
• Use a consistent
process to make sure
adopters get all their
questions answered
• Check identification and
keep records
• Trust your instincts
• Make exceptions
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56. Return rate before and after open
adoptions
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

57. Return rate before and after open
adoptions
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

58. Does this worry you?
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HSUS 2014 Pets for Life Report: 88% of clients have never contacted a shelter
or animal control services

59. Strategic adoptions
• Make a positive
connection between
shelter and adopter,
demonstrate mutual trust
• Allow adopter (and kids
and friends) to
experience a
spayed/neutered/
identified/vaccinated pet
• Low cost spay/neuter
that comes with a pet ;-)
60
More pie
please!
Shelter/rescue 3%

60. Brave new world
When we started to concentrate on the sense of
urgency and how to get them into homes now -- and
not hang onto them because we want, not need, but
want to do just one more thing; it is amazing how many
things are eliminated because they were never really
necessary in the 1st place... So with our 'we can hold
200 cats mindset' -- for the last 3 months, our cat
count has been in the 40s and 50s. We are not
euthanizing; we are adopting.
Renee Webb, Fond-du-Lac Humane Society

61. Can we count you in?
The Million Cat Challenge is made possible by an
educational grant from Maddie’s Fund

62. Don’t forget to visit us tomorrow!
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63. #ThanksToMaddie!
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