By Abby Baker
Staff Intern
Hillsborough Community College and the SPCA teamed up for the sixth time to spay and neuter local feral cats Saturday, July 16.
From 8 a.m. to noon, 25 cats were spayed and neutered, vaccinated and given physical checkups in Hillsborough Community College’s veterinarian technology room at the Plant City campus.
The team of volunteers was made up of veterinarians, seasoned technicians and students in HCC’s veterinary technology program.
Costing about $20 per cat and about $500 total for the spay and neuter clinic, the program is funded by an HCC Foundation Resources for Excellence grant.
Dr. Vincent Centonze is the program director as well as an HCC faculty member. As a veterinarian, the professor was one of the four doctors spaying and neutering the feral cats.
“My number one priority in this is the students,” Centonze said.
Since the first event in 2008, the spay and neuter clinic happens upon students’ request. With more experienced pupils comes more cats.
The clinic is a challenging practice on the students because the cats they are handling are not socialized. They cannot be touched without gloves and are not picked up while conscious.
“I just think it’s really important that we give them the same care that we give to dogs,” Megan Kostelny, a volunteer, said. “Cats are like secondhand citizens, and that’s why we have ferals.”
While HCC supplies the volunteers and the space to get these animals spayed and neutered, the SPCA traps and releases the cats. This technique of population control is in effect around the United States. It is called TNR, or trap, neuter, release.
The SPCA extends the TNR technique to not only HCC but individuals and organizations in the community. Anyone willing can be trained to trap and bring the animals to the SPCA to be spayed and neutered.
HOW IT WORKS
A feral cat is different from a stray cat in that a feral has never had a home with humans. A stray may be living outdoors, but it does not have the same type of fear toward people.
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Colonies of feral cats are a product of pet abandoning and stray breeding in the wild. TNR creates an opportunity to minimize feral cat population without harming feral cats.
“It’s a responsibility on the public to have spayed animals,” Centonze said. “There are people that don’t like the idea, and I ask, ‘What’s the alternative?’”
HCC’s spay and neuter clinic starts in the community cat colonies. Bruce Nance, an SPCA-hired professional trapper for 14 years, sets the traps in known feral colonies.
A few days before the HCC Spay Day, the traps are set around Hillsborough and Polk counties. Plant City, Brandon and Lakeland are some of the more popular areas.
Once the animals are confined, they wait at the SPCA’s Lakeland campus.
The day of the clinic, cats are shipped to HCC. They are given anesthesia through their crates, and they become unconscious while still in them.
Once they are asleep, vet tech students check their overall health. Licensed veterinarians give them vaccinations and rabies shots. The animals go into surgery, where they are spayed or neutered. Their ears are cropped, which is the universal symbol for a spayed or neutered cat.
While unconscious and under painkillers, the cats are returned to their cages, and after a few days of recovery the SPCA returns them to their original colonies.
“These are not cats you want in your home,” Paula Creamer, SPCA director of business marketing and philanthropy, said. “When they go back they have been vaccinated and are in so much better condition.”
HCC is planning to do another clinic in October of this year.
THE PROGRAM
HCC’s veterinarian technology certification is a five term, nearly two-year, accredited program.
An least 64 students are joining in the newest term, and the program is increasing almost every year.
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“I love this place. These are my babies,” said Tera Caldwell, a volunteer technician. “I graduated six years ago.”
The students have to take four externships before their graduation. They work at a general veterinarian clinic, a specialty clinic, an emergency clinic and a shelter.
After five terms of hands-on practice and book work, the students must pass a national exam.
In 2015, the national veterinarian technology exam pass rate was 73% and HCC’s pass rate was 100%. In 2014, the national pass rate was 74% and HCC’s was 94%.
“Our students get all the essential skills they need,” Centonze said. “It’s a great program.”
DESTRUCTIVE PAWS
There are burdens that come with feral cat colonies.
– Feral cats are responsible for killing mass numbers of birds, small mammals and reptiles every year. Some are keystone species to the environment.
– Roaming cats contract zoonotic diseases to other felines, animals and humans.
– They can tear up soil, leave fecal matter in public places and dig through trash cans.
FAST FACTS
– There may be 6.3 to 9.6 million feral cats in Florida.
– One breeding cat and it’s generation of offspring can breed up to 420,000 kittens in seven years.
– To eliminate a colony of feral cats in 11 years, 82% of the feral population will have to be spayed or neutered.
– A domesticated house cat typically lives 12 to 15 years, a feral cat lives two to eight.
SOURCE: SPCA