Free-roaming cats are often unowned, unwanted and at risk of being taken to shelters and euthanized, but Fort Wayne’s Community Cat Program aims to protect stray cats. The program’s leaders announced it received new funding this week.
The program, run by Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control, traps stray cats and vaccinates, spays and neuters them. The cats are microchipped, marked with an ear clipping and returned to their communities.
The program has helped nearly 600 cats in its first year, and it hopes to save 600 more with the help of a $21,000 grant from Best Friends Animal Society and private donors.
Animal Care and Control director Belinda Lewis says the program reduces the stray cat population because if cats aren’t neutered, they continue to breed.
“You can imagine, knowing how many potential kittens that you’re going to have in a litter, how many kittens that we can end up creating in a single neighborhood and the nuisances that that kind of volume can create,” Lewis said.
Lewis says the Fort Wayne program is unique because it is combined with efforts to teach people how to properly care for community cats.
