{"id":63857,"date":"2026-03-17T19:15:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63857"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:54:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:54:28","slug":"it-is-so-rewarding-and-heartwarming-when-i-drive-past-spca-florida-early-weekday-mornings-and-see-people-in-line-for-the-backyard-cat-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/17\/it-is-so-rewarding-and-heartwarming-when-i-drive-past-spca-florida-early-weekday-mornings-and-see-people-in-line-for-the-backyard-cat-program\/","title":{"rendered":"It is so REWARDING and HEARTWARMING when I drive past SPCA FLORIDA early weekday mornings and see people in line for the BACKYARD CAT PROGRAM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Street Cat Project of Polk County<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is so REWARDING<\/strong> and HEARTWARMING<\/strong> when I drive past SPCA FLORIDA early weekday mornings and see people in line for the BACKYARD CAT PROGRAM<\/strong>. Doing the right thing by bringing the cats in for SPAY\/NEUTER\/VACCINES<\/strong> and allowing them to live their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Truth-a-ganda art by Greg Dampier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The ANIMAL CRISIS in POLK COUNTY<\/strong> is OVERWHELMING<\/strong>. In the first 2 months of 2026, POLK COUNTY ANIMAL CONTROL KILLED 107 DOGS AND 463 CATS<\/strong> for no other reason than these animals were unfortunate enough to be brought into their facility. It is not a SHELTER<\/strong>. It is a JAIL FOR ANIMALS<\/strong> to go to wait to die when their time is up, and it is run like a JAIL with no cameras or phones allowed, NO VOLUNTEERS<\/strong> to help the animals, and NO HEAT OR AIR CONDITIONING<\/strong>. Sadly, it is funded by our tax dollars and run by our elected COMMISSIONERS AND SHERIFF<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have free-roaming cats, PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THEM TO ANIMAL CONTROL<\/strong> unless they are sick or injured. FEED THEM<\/strong> and HUMANELY GET THEM FIXED<\/strong> to stop the population growth. KILLING THEM DOES NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM<\/strong>. We have been killing them by the thousands since SHERIFF JUDD<\/strong> took over POLK ANIMAL CONTROL 20+ YEARS AGO<\/strong>. Yet we are still overrun with CATS<\/strong>. Killing them doesn’t work.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

KILLING IS NOT POPULATION CONTROL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

STREET CAT PROJECT has fixed and vetted 365 CATS so far in 2026.<\/strong> We receive no funding from the County for this much-needed Community Service. DONATIONS ARE GREATLY NEEDED AND ALWAYS APPRECIATED<\/strong>. We need a Countywide FUNDED PROGRAM. Please email the COMMISSIONERS AND TELL THEM TO SUPPORT A TNVR INITIATIVE IN POLK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

www.streetcatproject.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DONOR PROGRAM: https:\/\/givebutter.org\/52rBJG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CASH APP: $TNRINPOLK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAYPAL: @STREETCATPROJECT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Street Cat Project of Polk County It is so REWARDING and HEARTWARMING when I drive past SPCA FLORIDA early weekday mornings and see people in line for the BACKYARD… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDJcL1NoZXJpZmZKdWRkQ2F0cy1jb3B5LTEud2VicD9maXQ9NzM3JTJDMTAyNCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ikl0IGlzIHNvIFJFV0FSRElORyBhbmQgSEVBUlRXQVJNSU5HIHdoZW4gSSBkcml2ZSBwYXN0IFNQQ0EgRkxPUklEQSBlYXJseSB3ZWVrZGF5IG1vcm5pbmdzIGFuZCBzZWUgcGVvcGxlIGluIGxpbmUgZm9yIHRoZSBCQUNLWUFSRCBDQVQgUFJPR1JBTSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.E9Eo9MNKbZUDpAL4aFpUfLpuIAtLBpVvqwrQQhpjd74MQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[14112],"class_list":["post-63857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-it-is-so-rewarding-and-heartwarming-when-i-drive-past-spca-florida-early-weekday-mornings-and-see-people-in-line-for-the-backyard-cat-program"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63857"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63866,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63857\/revisions\/63866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}