By Street Cat Project of Polk County
Sadly, our County Commissioners and Polk County Sheriff’s Office are narcissistic enough to believe that they know better than seasoned Animal Welfare Advocates, Shelter Management specialists, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and national Animal Welfare groups (Best Friends Animal Society, Neighborhood Cats, Alley Cat Allies). It must be hard to live in this abject, ignorant world where you know better than the experts and are not open to learning anything new.
UC Davis – Koret Shelter Management Program.
Angela Newkirk quote –
” The vast majority of communities have far more cats living outside than adopters looking to bring them inside. For years we trapped cats, brought them into the shelter, tried to adopt as many as we could and, sadly, euthanized the ones that weren’t so lucky. That is until we found out there are an estimated 60-80 million cats living outside and this strategy for managing cats was not one that was ever going to be successful. In fact, removing a small percentage of cats from an environment has actually been shown to increase the number of animals born during the next birthing cycle.
The idea behind SNR (Shelter Neuter Return) is that instead of bringing cats into shelters to ultimately be euthanized, we use our shelter resources and adoptive homes for cats that do not have … an outdoor environment in which they are already thriving. Cats that are brought into the shelter but aren’t in danger and are in good body condition can be returned to their place of origin (minus a few reproductive organs) rather than being euthanized. The fact that they are healthy tells us they have a situation that is working well for them and not in need of rescue. Very often cats are brought in that have a home already but were hanging around outside. Those cats know where to find shelter and food and have a 10 times greater chance of returning to it than if brought into a shelter.
SNR by progressive animal shelters moves away from the old way of doing things, one that resulted in millions of cats being euthanized annually, to a new way of approaching cat management. Not all cats outside need to go to the animal shelter, and we definitely don’t need to resort to euthanasia for cats that are thriving in their environments. Even if we don’t know where their home is, their body condition tells us that they do.”
Please write the Polk Commissioners and voice your displeasure with the current state of Polk Animal Control and the outdated County Animal Welfare Ordinances. Be the voice of the voiceless. PLEASE SHARE THIS POST TO SPREAD OUR REACH INTO THE COMMUNITY.
Donations are always needed. We have fixed 1070 cats and 2 lucky dogs so far in 2025.
Cash App: $TNRinPolk
Paypal: #streetcatproject
Donor Program: https://givebutter.com/52rBJG
#euthanasiaisnotpopulationcontrol#TNVRworks#tnrsaveslives#streetcatsofpolkcounty#lakeland#mulberryfl#Auburndale#bartowflorida
I think “narcissistic” is a gross understatement.
How can Commissioners sleep knowing their inaction is the death sentence of innocent animals because they don’t have the morals to stand up to what is wrong.
They cowardly hide.
Greatest coward has 8 stars of failure.
His mask is falling into pieces.