Yowls, shrieks, blurry flashes of fur disappearing into bushes — wild cat populations are exploding across parts of the Southland, ushering in more death at some shelters.
But not everywhere.
Consider: The city of Los Angeles racked up a “live outcome” rate of nearly 81% for cats that entered its shelters last year. Just 19% were euthanized or died in care, according to city data.
Orange County Animal Care, in contrast, racked up live outcomes of just 68.6% for cats. More than 30% were euthanized or died in care last year. That’s an 8% jump in the raw number of dead cats over 2019 (to 1,925 from 1,779), even as the total number of impounded cats plunged by nearly a third (to 6,393 from 9,369).
Why the death differential? Acknowledging that some folks don’t trust any of these numbers, at least part of the answer is that the city of Los Angeles works harder to spay and neuter street cats. A single feral female can have three litters a year (starting when she’s less than a year old), adding another 10 or so felines to the colony, who can start breeding when they’re less than a year old, and so on, and so on.
Orange County, meanwhile, abandoned similar efforts years ago — after legal threats some say were grossly misinterpreted.
These life-saving efforts are often called “community cat” programs. Long Beach does a version. So does San Diego. Riverside County launched one this year with great enthusiasm — and plans a “Cinco de Meow-o” observation — and smaller cities like Garden Grove and Westminster have programs as well.
“Why are all these other cities and shelters able to do community cat programs? Do they have smarter lawyers than Orange County?” asked Deborah Felin, director and co-founder of Helen Sanders CatPAWS, which runs regular cat clinics in Long Beach (where some 78% of cats at city shelters made it out alive, considerably better than O.C.).
“Fifty years ago, I grew up in a very rural town in the north woods…
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