Take Action Now to Stop Trap and Kill Program in Southern California
For twelve years, volunteer caregivers have been effectively carrying out a TNR program at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. Through their efforts and at no cost to the hospital, the population of feral cats has been reduced by 63%, bringing the number of cats to less than 75.
On January 15, 2004, hospital employees received a memo with their paycheck indicating that they would be subject to “disciplinary action†for feeding the cats. Administrators claim the cats have fleas which pose a health hazard and they have already begun trapping and killing the cats.
The hospital has approved the lethal operation despite repeated offers from Alley Cat Allies, hospital employees, and local activists to continue the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program and specifically address the hospitals concerns. These "concerns" have been resolved at similiar facilities around the country. In Defense of Animals has offered to supply free flea treatment for the cats.
How You Can Help:
Your faxes, e-mails, and phone calls are needed today to stop the killing.
The Chief Executive Officers of the hospital and the Director of the Los Angeles Board of Health need to know that a nonlethal (sterilization) program that includes TNR is the most effective population control method and that their decision to starve and kill the cats will not solve their problems. Compassionate people around the country oppose their decision. Please ask that they place an immediate moratorium on the feeding ban and killing of cats on the hospital grounds.
Tecla Mickoseff, CEO and Ken Trevett
Harbor-UCLA Med Center
1000 W Carson St.
Torrance, CA 90509
FAX 310-328-9624
VOICE 310-222-2101
EMAIL [email protected] and [email protected] Supervisor Don Knabe
500 W Temple St,
Los Angeles, CA 50012
FAX 213 626 6941
VOICE 213 974 5555
EMAIL [email protected]
Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke
500 W Temple St,
Los Angeles, CA 50012
FAX 213-680-3283
VOICE 213-974-2222
EMAIL [email protected] Jonathan Fielding, M.D., Director
Public Health
313 Figueroa Dt.
Room 806
LA County Department of Health Services
Los Angeles, CA 90012
FAX: 213-240-8117
VOICE: 213-975-1273
You can include the following points in your letter:
• Eradication has been attempted throughout the U.S. for many decades. Communities that deal with feral cats by trapping and removing (either killing or relocating) them have now as many, if not more, feral cats than ever because full-scale trap-and-remove schemes require a much larger allocation of resources (both funds and staff) on an ongoing basis than communities can afford to dedicate to them.
• Public resistance to the killing of healthy animals is growing ever stronger. It goes beyond a simple refusal to cooperate and has grown into active interference of municipal efforts to harm cats. Without community support, a thorough trap-and-kill campaign cannot be executed.
• Review of the available data concludes that TNR is the only viable solution for reducing outdoor cat populations and a study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) backs up these findings. That study found in examining eleven feral cat colonies in Florida that TNR plus aggressive adoption programs resulted in removal of 47% of the original cats over a four year period with no new kittens born in year four.
For further information on Trap-Neuter-Return programs, please visit http://www.alleycat.org/pdf/buildingthebody.pdf
Contact Campaign Coordinator Amy Santiago at [email protected] for more information on how you can help.
For twelve years, volunteer caregivers have been effectively carrying out a TNR program at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. Through their efforts and at no cost to the hospital, the population of feral cats has been reduced by 63%, bringing the number of cats to less than 75.
On January 15, 2004, hospital employees received a memo with their paycheck indicating that they would be subject to “disciplinary action†for feeding the cats. Administrators claim the cats have fleas which pose a health hazard and they have already begun trapping and killing the cats.
The hospital has approved the lethal operation despite repeated offers from Alley Cat Allies, hospital employees, and local activists to continue the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program and specifically address the hospitals concerns. These "concerns" have been resolved at similiar facilities around the country. In Defense of Animals has offered to supply free flea treatment for the cats.
How You Can Help:
Your faxes, e-mails, and phone calls are needed today to stop the killing.
The Chief Executive Officers of the hospital and the Director of the Los Angeles Board of Health need to know that a nonlethal (sterilization) program that includes TNR is the most effective population control method and that their decision to starve and kill the cats will not solve their problems. Compassionate people around the country oppose their decision. Please ask that they place an immediate moratorium on the feeding ban and killing of cats on the hospital grounds.
Tecla Mickoseff, CEO and Ken Trevett
Harbor-UCLA Med Center
1000 W Carson St.
Torrance, CA 90509
FAX 310-328-9624
VOICE 310-222-2101
EMAIL [email protected] and [email protected] Supervisor Don Knabe
500 W Temple St,
Los Angeles, CA 50012
FAX 213 626 6941
VOICE 213 974 5555
EMAIL [email protected]
Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke
500 W Temple St,
Los Angeles, CA 50012
FAX 213-680-3283
VOICE 213-974-2222
EMAIL [email protected] Jonathan Fielding, M.D., Director
Public Health
313 Figueroa Dt.
Room 806
LA County Department of Health Services
Los Angeles, CA 90012
FAX: 213-240-8117
VOICE: 213-975-1273
You can include the following points in your letter:
• Eradication has been attempted throughout the U.S. for many decades. Communities that deal with feral cats by trapping and removing (either killing or relocating) them have now as many, if not more, feral cats than ever because full-scale trap-and-remove schemes require a much larger allocation of resources (both funds and staff) on an ongoing basis than communities can afford to dedicate to them.
• Public resistance to the killing of healthy animals is growing ever stronger. It goes beyond a simple refusal to cooperate and has grown into active interference of municipal efforts to harm cats. Without community support, a thorough trap-and-kill campaign cannot be executed.
• Review of the available data concludes that TNR is the only viable solution for reducing outdoor cat populations and a study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) backs up these findings. That study found in examining eleven feral cat colonies in Florida that TNR plus aggressive adoption programs resulted in removal of 47% of the original cats over a four year period with no new kittens born in year four.
For further information on Trap-Neuter-Return programs, please visit http://www.alleycat.org/pdf/buildingthebody.pdf
Contact Campaign Coordinator Amy Santiago at [email protected] for more information on how you can help.