Ten tips for statewide success in identifying spay/neuter black holes

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Ten tips for statewide success in identifying spay/neuter black holes

Where are the spay/neuter black holes in your area? Even better, how do you identify them and than how can you help them?

If you are heavily involved with spay/neuter in your state, either through trap, neuter and return or you run a clinic it is very important to know what is going on in your WHOLE state with spay/neuter. Why is this important? It helps you and other groups know what lies ahead for necessary targeted projects and makes us all work together more efficiently.

Below is an easy 10-step plan for you to hold a spay/neuter summit in your state:

1. Collect Data –

Get a listing of the top 20 communities with the highest poverty rates in the state (have as full of a listing available as possible, but these 20 are a good start).

2. Create a List- 

Create a listing of all of the organizations in your state that offer spay/neuter services for 1000+ cats a year. United Spay Alliance(unitedspayalliance.org) is a good place to start to find clinics in your state.

3. Collect Data –

Receive data from these groups about the number of cats that they are doing and where they are coming from. Have a volunteer overlay the data from all of the groups across the state.

4. Bring Everyone Together –

Bring all of the groups together to look at how this data overlays with the poverty stricken areas and see if any of the 20 communities aren’t covered.

5. Collect  Tribal Knowledge –

For the uncovered areas, have a conversation about what people know about those areas? Are you missing groups? Are there no spay/neuter services available? Is there a shelter/humane society that could be connected with?

6. Find Other Data Sources –

Many black hole areas don’t have a large humane society presence or any shelter presence. So looking at live release rates may not be helpful. So it is good to realize that this isn’t going to be the only measure for success.

7. Ask for Help –

Ask the group-who might have capacity to reach into the area to find out more about the situation for community cats. This might be reaching out to local groups, animal control and board of health to really find out how things are handled.

8. Community Involvement –

It may be time to hold a community meeting in this defined area with several of the spay/neuter groups and the community representatives to help kick off a new effort in the community and the creation of a new targeted spay/neuter program.

9. Think Long-Term –

As our clinics get more successful, the number of cats we will be taking in will go down so it is in the best interest of clinic manager and boards of directors to think long term about how to reach out into new areas of the state where residents don’t have access to affordable spay/neuter.

10. Set Up Future Meetings – 

Set up a date to meet again in a year’s time to be able to track and evaluate changes in trends in the state.

Hopefully, these Ten tips for statewide success in identifying spay/neuter black holes will help you organize events like to help this issue in your state. By investing your time in organizing an event like this, annually, it will help all of the clinics in the state work more efficiently and effectively. Seem overwhelming? If you would like more details on how you can run an event like this, I am happy to help! Feel free to reach out to me regarding consulting at stacy@communitycatspodcast.com.