Campaign Details
"Spay it forward" and let's save some cat's lives together!
We're determined to save a bunch of lives by spaying or neutering at least 40 cats on Spay it Forward day. That costs money. We have to pay for the, vets and vet techs that do the procedures, pay for the supplies and the operating costs of the Meow Mobile.
It costs us about $90 per procedure, but it doesn't matter, because it's worth it to save lives.
Please help by making a small donation. We must get this done together!
THE CATNETWORK: NON-PROFIT ACHEIVEMENTS
Feeding a Stray-Neuter or Spay
I'd Rather be Sterilized than Euthanized
These are the slogans you see and read about when you hear about the work of The Cat Network in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
The Cat Network, Inc. (CN)is a 501(c)3, Florida not-for-profit corporation dedicated to humanely reducingcat overpopulation by educating the public about the need to sterilize theirpets and strays; providing access to low-cost spay/neuter services for stray,homeless and abandoned cats; helping members in their efforts to placeadoptable cats in loving homes; and advocating non-lethal population controland humane public policy.
The Cat Network is an allvolunteer organization. It has over 3500members. Members under 55 pay $25.00yearly for membership. Seniors pay$10.00 yearly. Members are afforded theright to buy low cost spay-neuter certificates and to participate in theadoption program. The Cat Network members are working on a daily basistrapping, sterilizing, fostering cats, and educating the public in an effort toraise awareness of the importance of ending stray and feral cat over-population
The Cat Network programs are all manned byover 400 volunteers who participate in TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) which is anationally recognized program whereby cats are trapped, taken to a vet forsterilization and returned to their location. Volunteers also participate by fostering cats for adoption andparticipate in adoption shows every weekend at over 15 venues. They participatein educational programs and volunteers man the phone lines. There are over 150 calls to the phone lineseach day. The Board of Directorsoversees the organization’s activities and they are also all volunteers. There is no paid Executive Director or CEO. The only two paid positions are two part time Vet-techs who participate on the Miami Meow Mobile. All fundraising activities are coordinated by volunteers including those who write grant proposals. All media and communications activities are manned by volunteers. Their volunteersdo this work so that a significant portion of the monies that are taken in aregoing directly to sterilizing the cats rather than to paying for theadministrative cost of creating and maintaining the program. Their passion for helping the animals is overwhelming and drives not only the Board of Directors but the volunteers as well. All high school students need to have community volunteer hours and The Cat Network offers this at theira doption venues and spay/neuter events. The Cat Network also works with the judicial system offering communityservice e hours for those that need to fulfill this obligation.
The Cat Network Adoptionprogram promotes fostering by individual members who rescue stray and homelesscats. To date, CN has helped place over 10,000 cats through the use of thegroup’s website, adoption venues which include Petsmart, Petco, and All PetsEmporium, and through Petfinder. One of their member's foster cats, Cisco, wasthe winner of the Meow Mix House contest in 2006. The winning cat was featuredon the NBC Today Show and in People Magazine.
The Cat Network’sSpay/Neuter program has two components. The first is the collaboration with 45 participating veterinarians whoparticipate in the spay/neuter program. They accept the certificates that The Cat Network sells to the public for$25.00 each. These certificates are for stray and feral cats only. The participating veterinarians sterilizestray and feral cats using that certificate and are reimbursed, $25.00 for malecats, $40.00 for female cats and $60.00 for pregnant female cats. The public pays $25.00 and The Cat Networksubsidizes the rest of the money for the reimbursements to the veterinarians. Each cat gets ear tipped to signify that it hasbeen sterilized. The cats also get a rabies vaccine. The other component of theprogram is the flagship vehicle, The Miami Meow Mobile which travels Miami Dade County every month. Each month there are at least 6 to 8 dayswhere the vehicle stages sterilization Spay/Neuter events in locationsthroughout the county making it easier for the public to participate in curbingfeline overpopulation. To date, sincetheir inception in 1995 they have helped the public sterilize over 80,000 cats.South Florida is unique in that kitten season is an almost year-round event dueto the climate being hot for almost 11 months out of the year. The hotter it is, the more felinesbreed. A cat can get pregnant as earlyas two months and can have up to 4 litters per year. There is an estimated 400, 000 to 500,000 freeroaming cats in Miami-Dade county. Thisnumber is calculated by taking the human population and dividing by .6. 2,400,000/.6= 400,000.. Major trapping projects that volunteers havehelped with include Miami Dade College, various trailer parks, Macy’sDepartment stores in Dadeland Mall, The Hammocks Homeowner’s Association andothers too numerous to mention.
The Cat Network, Inc hashad many milestones in their 15 year history. The Cat Network has received numerous grantsthroughout the years. The Cat Networkreceived the Florida Animal Friend Grant in 2007 and 2010; a Honda GeneratorGrant in 2008. The Cat Network has also received a Maddie's Fund AdoptionStatistics Grant as part of a Coalition between themselves, The Humane Societyof Greater Miami, Animal Services, Friends Forever, and Pet Rescue. The CatNetwork, Inc has also received a Petco project grant for a Spayathon in May2009. In 2010, The Cat Network received a $20,000 grant from Chase CommunityGiving which was used to help sterilize the community cats on Miami Beach. In 2011, The Cat Networkreceived a $25,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant to create a program to transport felinesfrom our high risk shelter to a rescue group in another state. So far, The Cat Network has saved almost 3000precious lives since the program began in 2009. The Cat Network received a grant in 2012 fromThe Miami Foundation to sterilize 400 cats in Little Havana. The Cat Networkreceived a donation in 2012 for a new GMC Savannah transport cargo van in order to increasetheir capacity to continue the transport program of moving cats from Miami DadeAnimal Services to other rescue groups around the country.
The Cat Network has useddonations to create special funds and projects. In 2008, Alfie's Angel Fund was created to assist those of limitedincome due to age, disability or special circumstances in spaying/neuteringtheir animals. This fund was made possible by a grant from one of our membersin honor of their beloved cat, Alfie. The Cat Network, Inc created the WildCatRoundUp Spayathon, which is held in October in honor of National Feral Cat Daythrough another generous donation. TheCat Network created two cartoon characters Tom-No-More and Peggy-No-Preggy whichserved as mascots for the event.
The Cat Network is active inthe community educating condominium and homeowner associations about humanepopulation control. CN also works onspay/neuter events and adoption efforts with students from the Pre-Veterinaryprogram at Felix Varela High School., Miami-Dade College Vet-Technician programand the University of Miami's Pre-Veterinarian program. CN members also presenteducational seminars to students in Miami-Dade Public Schools and area highschool students are eligible to fulfill their community service hours throughCN projects. The Cat Network also has relationships with national retailerswhere The Cat Network hosts adoption shows on an occasional basis.
The Cat Network hasseveral fundraising projects each year, including Toast to Cat Network andlocal community events. In 2010, The Cat Network introduced a new fundraiserentitled, Le Chat Noir- A Benefit to The Black Cat. In 2012, the fundraiserwill be a jewelry trunk show featuring Stella and Dot jewelry entitled “SparkleFor Paws: A Pawsitively Bejeweled Felinethopic Event”. The Cat Network isinvolved in national programs such as Rally to Rescue, HSUS Shelter Partners,and Best Friends Charity Partners. TheCat Network won the Best Non-Profit Animal Welfare Organization from the SouthFlorida Veterinary Foundation for 2009. . The Cat Network Cause is promoted onFacebook , Twitter, You Tube, and LinkedIn. CN has a web presence on Facebook with a Non-Profit Page with over 11,000likes and a presence on Facebook Causes where the group has raised over $50,000in three years. The Cat Network has a presence on Twitter with over 4000followers. The Cat Network is committed to making every effort to further itsmission of educating the public on the importance of sterilization to endanimal overpopulation.
The Cat Network, alongwith The Humane Society of Greater Miami, and Miami-Dade Animal Services arethe 10th and largest Community Partner of the ASPCA. This partnership was awarded in 2010 and is afive year partnership trying to increase the live release rate from Miami DadeAnimal Services in Miami Dade County. In 2010, the partnership started with a liverelease rate just under 40%. In 2014the partnership has brought that rate to just under 90%. The Cat Network hasreceived over $150,000 in grants from the ASPCA to enhance the equipment on theMeow Mobile and to help defray the already low cost of the certificate programto an even lower cost. The economicconditions of our area and the percentage of the population that is elderly orlow income but who have embraced the idea of pet overpopulation has increasedour emphasis on keeping the cost of sterilization to an even lower cost.
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