100 feral felines spayed or neutered in operation blitz

In an effort to control the local outdoor cat population, the Windsor-essex County Humane Society held a large-scale spay and neuter clinic Friday.

More than 100 feral felines trapped outside were delivered to the humane society by their community caregivers, said the organization’s executive director, Melanie Coulter. Throughout the day, those cats were picked up, fixed, microchipped and vaccinated — ready to be returned to their neighbourhoods without the ability to produce more kittens.

“It was a very well-organized machine,” Coulter said.

A veterinarian and a vet tech from the humane society recently participated in a “very large” spay and neuter event in Puerto Rico, where they learned about running mass clinics, Coulter said.

Twenty local volunteer veterinary technicians donated their time to assist the humane society in fulfilling its goal of spay-neutering 100 cats in one day. Community donations helped pay for the cost of equipment, materials and medications for the procedures.

“Our clinic is a great example of the fact that spay and neuter works,” Coulter said. “The first year we opened after years of increases in cat intake, we actually saw the first decrease in cat intake in quite a while. We’ve seen that continue year over year.”

From 2011, when the public spay and neuter clinic opened, to 2019, the stray cat intake at the humane society dropped by 42 per cent, according to the organization. In 2019, a total of 6,217 cats we fixed, which included 1,865 feral cats.

“It’s really important if you’re feeding an outdoor cat that you’re also making sure they’re spayed or neutered,” Coulter said. “It’s really important for their quality of life to make sure they’re not reproducing and adding to the population.”

The humane society spays and neuters feral cats by appointment year-round at its clinic for $50 per cat. A free community cat package — microchip, vaccination, and ear tip — is also available at the time of the procedure for feral cats who will be released back outside.