San Francisco SPCA Receives $100,000 from PetSmart Charities®
Grant to Help Feral and Community Cats
The grant will fund efforts to spay/neuter cats through Trap-Neuter-Return
March 7, 2017 – The San Francisco SPCA has received a generous $100,000 grant from PetSmart Charities®, the leading funder of animal welfare in North America, to help fund spay/neuter surgeries for feral and community cats in San Francisco. The SF SPCA’s Community Cats Program spays and neuters community cats for free, which effectively controls – and ultimately reduces – the population.
“We’re incredibly grateful for the generous support of PetSmart Charities,” said Dr. Jennifer Scarlett, SF SPCA President. “The SF SPCA spays/neuters approximately 1,300 community cats each year, and this grant will allow us to have an even bigger positive impact on the community cat population in our city.”
“By spaying and neuter feral and community cats, the SF SPCA is taking a proactive approach to reducing the overpopulation of pets in the community,” said Jenny Aho, regional relationship manager at PetSmart Charities. “PetSmart Charities is proud to support their efforts to end pet homelessness and help local pets in need with this grant.”
The grant funds the SF SPCA’s Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program, which is the most humane and effective way to control the community cat population. With TNR, feral and free-roaming cats are caught in humane box traps, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and then returned to where they were found to live out their lives as healthy, altered, vaccinated Community Cats. TNR improves cats’ lives: it helps to stabilize cat colony populations (no more kittens!) and eliminates mating behaviors like fighting and yowling.
Since its inception in 1998, the SF SPCA’s Community Cats Program has served more than 17,800 feral and free-roaming cats. The program has made a dramatic impact on cat intake in the city of San Francisco. San Francisco Animal Care and Control, the local open admissions municipal shelter, has reported a significant reduction in cat intake since the Community Cats Program launched in 1998 – including a 14 percent decrease from 2011-2014.
PetSmart Charities aims to proactively prevent pet homelessness through increased spay and neuter efforts. With the help of animal welfare partners, such as the SF SPCA, PetSmart Charities has funded over 1.4 million spay and neuter surgeries in the U.S. since 2009.
To learn more, visit sfspca.org/communitycats
San Francisco SPCA
The San Francisco SPCA is an independent, community-supported, non-profit animal welfare organization dedicated to saving, protecting and providing immediate care for cats and dogs who are homeless, ill or in need of an advocate. The SF SPCA also works long-term to educate the community, reduce the number of unwanted kittens and puppies through spaying and neutering, and improve the quality of life for animals and their human companions. The organization does not receive government funding and is not affiliated with any national organization.
For more information about San Francisco pet adoption, call the SF SPCA at (415) 522-3500 or visit sfspca.org.
About PetSmart Charities®
PetSmart Charities, Inc. is a nonprofit animal welfare organization that saves the lives of homeless pets. Each year nearly 500,000 dogs and cats find homes through our adoption program in all PetSmart® stores across the U.S. and sponsored adoption events. Each year millions of PetSmart shoppers contribute to PetSmart Charities to help pets in need by making donations on a pin pad at the register. PetSmart Charities efficiently uses 90 cents of every dollar to support its mission of finding lifelong, loving homes for all pets. PetSmart Charities grants more money to directly help pets in need than any other animal welfare group in North America, with a focus on funding adoption and spay/neuter programs that help communities solve pet overpopulation. PetSmart Charities is a 501(c)(3) organization, independent from PetSmart, Inc. PetSmart Charities has received the Four Star Rating for the past 13 years from Charity Navigator, an independent nonprofit that reports on the effectiveness, accountability and transparency of nonprofits, placing it among the top one percent of charities rated by this organization.