Spay Archives - The Community Cats Podcast

June 20, 2016

Interview! Frank Hamilton, Co-Founder of the Animal Coalition of Tampa

Episode #3 – “Start where you are, and use what you have.” Frank describes how one outdoor kitty named Blackie motivated him and his wife to found the Animal Coalition of Tampa, whose spay/neuter efforts have transformed feline welfare in one of Florida’s most populous regions, and how others can […]

July 8, 2016

Interview! Karen Little, Founder, Alley Cat Advocates, Louisville KY

“Long term vision and careful planning leads to success.” In this episode, Karen describes how she went about determining what type of efforts and program might best solve the community cat problem in Louisville. She’s a big believer in planning and patience; when founding Alley Cat Advocates, she spent a […]

July 12, 2016

Interview! Julie White, Former Senior Director of Grants, Programs and Field Initiatives at PetSmart Charities

“You can save more lives by fixing one cat than you can with one adoption.” Julie applied her for-profit experience and strategic mindset to the issues facing Community Cats in her years at PetSmart Charities and Executive Director of the Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Program in Washington State. She points out […]

August 6, 2016

Interview! Dr. David Haworth, DVM, PetSmart Charities President

“I am extremely optimistic about the future.” Dr. David Haworth, DVM, PhD has impact on his mind. He discusses how he works to help PetSmart Charities save 1,400 lives a day, through grantmaking, adoption centers, supporting spay/neuter and other initiatives. To find out more visit PetSmart Charities online. Listen to Episode […]

August 10, 2016

Interview! Marvin Mackie, DVM, Co-Creator of the Quick Spay Technique

“In the human side of things, you can never get to zero in something that you think is absolutely ideal.” Dr. Marvin Mackie began his lifelong work with animals from an early age. Raised on a farm around cows and horses, he entered veterinary school with the intent of becoming a large animal […]

August 12, 2016

Interview! Amber Sitko, Founder, All About Animals Rescue, MI

“We don’t ever want anyone to come to the clinic and say we don’t have enough traps for you.” A computer consultant with Microsoft by day, Amber channeled both her passion for cats and her business-sense into launching Michigan’s All About Animals Rescue in 2005. Since then, she has raised […]

August 18, 2016

Interview! Rick DuCharme, Founder and Executive Director, First Coast No More Homeless Pets

“What really keeps me and most of our team coming to work every day is the fact that we have seen such great success.” A national expert in animal welfare issues, Rick is an advocate for spay/neuter programs targeting low income pet owners. He founded Jacksonville, Florida’s First “Coast No […]

August 20, 2016

Interview! Jon Cicirelli, Assistant Director Public Works, Director Animal Care and Services, San Jose, CA

“The program changed our view, philosophy, and focus and what we were saving on the cat side was helping us do better on the dog side as well.” John’s background in wildlife management and a biology degree from George Washington University led him to become an animal control officer in […]

September 1, 2016

Interview! Sara Pizano, DVM, Program Director for Target Zero

“Look at the data. Look at what’s happening. We need to sterilize, ear tip, and rabies vaccinate and put these cats back home.” A graduate of Cornell’s College of Veterinary program, Sara is the Program Director for Target Zero, a national initiative focused on assisting financially struggling shelters. She discusses […]

September 7, 2016

Interview! Sheri Gustafson, Spay/Neuter Community Liaison for the Massachusetts Animal Fund

“I’m actually really excited about how TNR is being viewed across the state.” Sheri serves as the Spay/Neuter Community Liaison for the Massachusetts Animal Fund, which provides a voucher program for low income pet owners. This program focuses on three main priorities: S/N support for municipal shelters, providing vouchers for […]

September 8, 2016

Interview! Cameron Moore, Project Manager, Target Zero

“When we offered spay/neuter to them, these caretakers would cry with happiness.” Given Cameron’s contribution to a diverse number of game-changing initiatives, she and Stacy have a wide-ranging conversation about a number of topics related to TNR, abandonment and adoption programs, and helping communities get the support they need to get […]

September 9, 2016

Interview! Bonnie Geisler, President and Founder, Felines and Friends Foundation (VT)

“We met at my dining room table, got organized and off we went.” Bonnie’s utilized partnerships with many different organizations to contribute to the success of the Feline and Friends Foundation, which has helped 2000 cats in just three years, in one of Vermont’s poorest countries. She borrowed her game […]

October 19, 2016

Interview! Dr. Peggy Larson, Founder of Cat Spay and Neuter Clinic, Colchester, VT

“You have to balance, to make sure that that cat’s going to be alright going back to where he came from.” Peggy Larson, founder of National Spay/Neuter Coalition, holds degrees from Ohio State Vet School, UC Davis, and Vermont Law School. She has used her education to support fellow vets trying […]

October 21, 2016

Interview! Julie Jacobson, Director of Spay Tennessee

“When writing grants, you have to come in prepared, you have to know your mission, you have to know your community.” Julie’s back for another interview on CCP! This time, Stacy checks about how things are going for Spay Tennessee, and Julie gives tips on managing grant money, methods to […]

October 22, 2016

Interview! Aimee St. Arnaud, Director at Humane Alliance a Program of the ASPCA

“We need to focus on stopping the problem at the root… that’s why we focus on prevention.” Aimee St. Arnaud works for the Humane Alliance training vets and community advocates who want to open spay-neuter clinics. She first got the idea to open her own spay-neuter clinic when volunteering with […]

October 25, 2016

Interview! Stacey Carver, President and Executive Director of Berkshire Animal DREAMS (MA)

“Collaboration is a wonderful thing for all of us trying to do animal rescue work.” Stacey tells Stacy about the positive impact that forging “harmonious” partnerships has had on the number of community cats in Berkshire County, especially its “big city” of Pittsfield, MA. With Animal DREAMS providing TNR services, […]

October 26, 2016

Interview! Jill O’Connell, Executive Director and Crystal Arnott, Communications and Fundraising Manager, Lowell Humane Society (MA)

“No matter how we operate, we all have the same goals which is to help community cats.” In another episode extolling the benefits of collaboration, Jill and Crystal describe how their relationships with other organizations have benefitted the cats and llower-income residents of Lowell. By bringing low-cost spay/neuter to the […]

October 27, 2016

Interview! Emma Clifford, Founder and Executive Director of Animal Balance

“Islands are helping islands, which is exactly what we wanted to happen.” Don’t miss this fascinating look at how community cats are being helped around the world by Animal Balance, the brainchild of its founder, Emma Clifford. Beginning with a program in 2004 to assist the Galapagos Islands in managing […]

November 10, 2016

Interview! Sharon Secovich, Co-founder, Spay Maine

“What I’ve found is a lot of people will feed but they don’t have the knowledge or wherewithal or the means to trap. So the only way to get our feral cat population down is with trapping help.” After her first career as an environmental geologist, Sharon pursued a public […]

December 6, 2016

Interview! Dr. Julie Levy, Maddie’s Professor of Shelter Medicine at University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine

“Our goal is to enculturation these life-saving key initiatives into animal sheltering… so that this becomes [the norm.]” Dr. Julie Levy is a professor of shelter medicine at the University of Florida, as well as a prolific publisher of scientific articles on small animal medicine. She began her work with community […]

December 17, 2016

Interview! Dr. Sara White, Founder Spay ASAP Inc.- VT

“We haven’t really been taught… how to take care of [our bodies as] this instrument that we have.” Dr. Sara White is a mixed-animal veterinarian with experience both in private and shelter medicine, and the operator of Spay ASAP Inc., a mobile MASH clinic. Since 2006, Dr. White has spayed and […]

December 29, 2016

Greatest Hits! Brianna Lovell, Outreach and Events Manager, Alley Cat Allies

“No action is too big or too small.” We couldn’t have asked for a better guest on National Feral Cat Day than Brianna Lovell! If you are still unaware of what this great day entails, this is the podcast that you’ve been waiting for! Brianna discusses how the day began, […]

December 31, 2016

Greatest Hits! Susanna Della Maddalena, CEO and President, Central OK Humane

“We’re in the business of saving lives.” Susanna was a fan favorite and we can definitely see why! She spent ten years heading up PetSmart Charities and now leads Central OK Humane. She has seen it all when it comes to fundraising and has been on both sides of the […]

January 31, 2017

Interview! Myles Chadwick, Vice President of the New School at Emancipet

“In order to reach people who haven’t been [reached] before, we have to do a lot of listening, not just a lot of telling.” What do line cooks and high-volume spay-neuter vets have in common? Coming to the animal welfare world from a background in restaurants and cooking, Myles didn’t know the first […]

February 28, 2017

Interview! Bruce Myers, Executive Director, United Spay Alliance

“The law tends to be way behind the needs on the ground… We’ve got to let the law catch up.” In this Spay Day episode, Stacy is joined by Bruce Myers, an animal protection lawyer and new director of the United Spay Alliance. The United Spay Alliance (USA) seeks to establish […]

March 9, 2017

Interview! Michelle Rivera, Founder, Spay-Neuter Kansas City

“We are so people-focused because behind every animal that is coming into our clinic is a person.” Michelle Rivera is the founder of Spay-Neuter Kansas City, a 501(c)3 non-profit that services the Kansas City areas in both Kansas and Missouri. Now going on its fifteenth year of operation, SNKC has increased […]

March 16, 2017

Interview! Joyce Briggs, President, Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs

“Whenever we intervene with animals in an ecosystem, there are implications for other animals.” Joyce Briggs is the president of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs. With a background in public health, she is concerned with how to better manage populations of cats and dogs, as well as […]

September 23, 2017

Interview! Esther Mechler, Founder of Spay USA

“What’s the tipping point? What’s the age that we could get the veterinarians to agree? The answer seemed to be, by five months.” Esther is back for another episode of the Community Cats Podcast, in which she shares more information on the Feline Fix By Five campaign, an initiative to encourage […]

October 6, 2020

Sarah Moore & Dr. Teri Kidd, Animal Protective League

“Veterinary medicine in general and spay/neuter in particular are essential services.” Listen to Episode #372 Now This episode is sponsored in part by Doobert.com, Boulder Holistic Vet, and Kitty Sift. In this episode, Stacy chats with Sarah Moore, the clinic manager for the Animal Protective League (APL) of Springfield […]

February 4, 2021

Feline Fix by Five

Today’s guest post comes to us from Krista Beucler, Marketing & Communications Intern at Community Cats Podcast. Fix cats by five months? To those of you working in a shelter setting, this idea might not make a lot of sense, as you’re probably already spaying and neutering kittens by 8 weeks […]

August 3, 2021

Lisa Wysocki, Co-director Fido Fixers

“The big lesson we learned was that before we give Fido [a mobile clinic] to any group, they have to have a dedicated vet already hired.” Listen to Episode #415 Now This episode is sponsored in part by Smalls Fresh Cat Food and Doobert.com. Lisa got involved in animal welfare […]

August 10, 2021

Rick DuCharme, Founder of RLD Consulting LLC

“Getting the overall number of pets entering shelters down, I think our best tool in our tool box is targeted spay/neuter programs.” Listen to Episode #416 Now This episode is sponsored in part by Smalls Fresh Cat Food and Doobert.com. Rick DuCharme has worked for many years as a no-kill […]

February 10, 2022

10 Myths & Facts About Spaying & Neutering Your Cat

Written by Cristin Bates, Edited by Brianna Lovell Myers As a loving pet parent, you want your cat to have the best life possible. Spaying (a female cat) and neutering (a male cat) are procedures that prevent them from reproducing. Spay/neuter provides many benefits and makes life better for you […]

February 24, 2022

Staff Burnout, a Mobile Clinic for Rent, and The Veterinary Shortage

Written by Esther Mechler, President & Founder of United Spay Alliance Interested in hearing the latest about Staff Burnout? The impact of Covid-19 on spay/neuter clinics, or the need for collaboration in dealing with the backlog? How to run small-scale spay/neuter wet labs to train more vets in your area? […]

August 25, 2022

Mass Trapping Success: Here’s What You Need to Know

Contributed by Dawn Benefiel, Executive Director of Indy Neighborhood Cats When a colony exceeds 20 cats, setting up your project can be a challenge. We know that in order to make a dent in a large unaltered colony, we need over 90% of the cats to be spayed/neutered, vaccinated, ear […]

September 8, 2022

Six Tips on How to Prevent Your Cat From Getting Pregnant!

This is a blog post that I honestly thought I would never write, but here we are. We are living through an unprecedented period where I am frequently hearing statements like: In terms of access to affordable spay/neuter resources in a timely manner, we are set back 20 years! Families […]

September 22, 2022

How to Winterize Those Feral Cat Shelters

This week, we are taking a look at past blog posts that will give you all the tips and information you need to refresh and ready your cat colonies for winter weather: Prepare for Winter and Prep Community Cat Shelters (2016) Time to Think About Winterizing Feral Cat Shelters (2017) […]