‘IT REALLY IS A SUCCESS STORY’
In Hartford, volunteers lead the way in helping hundreds of feral cats
Several times each month Sarai Rivera sets drop traps around neighborhoods in Hartford and then sits in her car and waits — sometimes for minutes and other times for hours — until a cat walks into one. Rivera, who was born and raised in Hartford, is a self-proclaimed cat lover. She has made it her mission to help the city’s feral cat population through spaying and neutering them in a process known as trap-neuter-release. TNR allows feral cats to be trapped humanely and then spayed or neutered and returned safely to the location where they were caught.
“I never leave traps unattended,” Rivera said. “Wildlife predators can get to them, humans could unfortunately take them, so I set the traps and then hide somewhere. A lot of times it’s just a waiting game in my car. I’ve actually waited one time over 12 hours at a location. I had to call a friend so I could run to use the restroom. I even had to get food delivered on occasion.”
But Rivera said that despite the waiting game, if you know where to put the traps, the cats will always come.
“I’ve never been unsuccessful trapping a cat,” Rivera said. “Often it’s just waiting until their next feeding time and coordinating with folks who feed them to know when they are fed and then putting the food out at the right time.”
Domestic cat breeds that roam the streets without a home or owner are considered feral cats and Rivera estimates there are thousands of them in Hartford. Rivera said the population has exploded since the pandemic when many nonprofits closed and stopped neutering and spaying them. Feral cat colonies are in neighborhoods throughout the city and generally consist of a group of female cats and their kittens; while males tend to live
alone outside of colonies. Most feral cats generally avoid human contact and are often most active after dusk.
“A single female feral can have three litters in a year and up to 200 kittens in their lifetime,” Rivera said. “It varies and that’s a rough estimate, but just one spay can make a huge difference to managing a population.”
Neutering and spaying feral cats is considered a humane way of dealing with the exploding population. In addition, it also provides several benefits for the cats themselves. A neutered cat is often less aggressive and doesn’t fight over territory or other female cats. Spayed cats generally are often healthier because they don’t have to fight off males and need less food than pregnant females. This contributes to an overall healthier colony, according to Rivera.
In Hartford, most of the feral cats are domestic shorthairs dumped on the streets by their owners who could no longer take care of them or afford veterinary care, according to Rivera. Feral cats are considered a low priority for most cities since they don’t pose a threat to humans. In addition, municipalities don’t want to spend much-needed funds on spaying and neutering them, so the work is often done by volunteers.
“Once people know there is help out there and I’m doing this, you would be amazed how many people have reached out to me,” Rivera said. “It’s really a huge network of people in Hartford feeding these cats and then telling me where to place the traps. So it’s relying on that network of people in the city. It’s very word of mouth.”
Rivera said she is currently aware of 30 feral cat colonies in the city and hopes to completely spay and neuter those cats before moving on to other areas. To help with her cause, she has set up a non-profit called MyBella TNR, to gather volunteers and take in donations.
“I want to show people that this is legitimate and that I’m really helping these cats,” Rivera said. “There’s too much to do and I need support, so I set up MyBella TNR to really give me that help I need. TNR is always the main focus but I also want to help feral cats with veterinary services and vaccinations.”
The nonprofit, named after one of the first cats Rivera adopted in 2016, has an active Facebook page that shows many of the cats she has rescued. MyBella TNR teams up with several area clinics to take the cats to get much-needed veterinary services including neutering and spaying.
On Monday morning, 25 feral cats from the streets of Hartford lined the outside of Protectors of Animals in East Hartford, awaiting to get spayed and neutered before being sent back into the city.
The nonprofit, which was formed in 1975, is one of the oldest no-kill animal shelters and rescues in Connecticut. POA offers TNR, low cost spay and neuter clinics, a range of veterinary care services, training and behavior tips, and cat and dog rescue and adoption services. The organization runs on 300 volunteers, according to Jody Macrina, POA President.
Rivera along with a six-person team of TNR volunteers from POA went out over the weekend to help set the traps. POA’s TNR team, which started two years ago, formed largely as a response to the feral cat population boom during the pandemic. POA volunteers trapped 17 cats, while Rivera helped trap 8.
“There has always been a need, but because of the pandemic, more people have dumped their cats on the streets. Because many of those cats are not neutered or spayed, the population has really increased,” said POA TNR team co-leader Heather Boudreaux. “We go out a few days before the clinic opens and start trapping. My day started at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday putting out traps in places where caretakers normally feed the cats. Then I went up to Albany Avenue around 8 a.m. to meet with another caretaker. We got 10 cats from that location, which took the majority of the day waiting there.”
Boudreaux said that she and a couple other volunteers then take the cats home and care for them in a process known as “clean and feed” until Monday morning when the clinic opens. After their procedures, volunteers continue to monitor them and feed them for another 48 hours, before releasing them in the location they were caught.
“When you focus on a specific area like Hartford, that’s when you really begin to make a difference,” said Macrina. “We’ve done four clinics so far and we have a few more scheduled thanks to generous donations from people in the community.”
An anonymous donor granted POA a $10,000 check last year to start holding TNR clinics for feral cats in Hartford. The nonprofit then matched that grant with an additional $10,000. So far, POA has spayed and neutered over 100 feral cats in the city through its TNR clinics, with plans to continue them through July until funds run out.
“Through our supporters, we are making a difference. It really is a success story.” Macrina said. “We think we can get back to pre-pandemic numbers if we keep working at it.”
The nonprofit uses several area veterinarians and clinical staff that is hired on to perform procedures. The veterinarians are hired per-diem and often dedicate one day out of the week or a few times a month to the nonprofit.
“Something the pandemic has changed for us is that we used to have a full-time veterinarian, but now they are per-diem,” Macrina said. “They are highly skilled and out of the goodness of their hearts, they give us their time. All of the surgeons have other clinics or hospitals they work for on a fulltime basis, but this is where they come to give back.”
But Macrina said that the pandemic has made it more challenging on small nonprofits that rely on community donations.
“Our call to action is really asking our community to help us,” Macrina said. “The rescues are very willing to go out and do the work which can be pretty thankless. Our workers go out late evenings or early mornings to catch these cats. But it’s the support of the community, local businesses, and even the government that would make it really possible for us to make a huge difference. We’ve seen an explosion in the feral cat population and so we recognize the importance of these TNR clinics. We want to keep doing these for as long as we can.”
Both Macrina and Rivera said that their nonprofits are seeking volunteers and donations. For anyone seeking to volunteer or donate, Protectors Of Animals has a volunteer application on their website and a donation page. For those seeking to help MyBella TNR, Rivera is asking to contact her directly at MyBellaTNR@ gmail.com or at 959-666-0240.
“It’s really a huge network of people in Hartford feeding these cats and then telling me where to place the traps. So it’s relying on that network of people in the city. It’s very word of mouth.”
— Sarai Rivera, of Hartford