Re: RC: Re: Re: Re: cats & horses

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/20/00 7:23:22 AM Pacific Daylight Time, darste@emi.com 
writes:

<< I can tell you that we have reduced the cat population so significantly in 
this area that I had to go out and look for new barn cats. We made a deal 
with our vet to spay and neuter anything we bring in in a trap. We bring them 
back and turn them loose and some will go on to survive and others will get 
killed by nature. None are harmed by the neutering and spaying. We neuter or 
spay anything that walks into the yard however briefly, if we can trap it, it 
goes to the vet. We have very little stray population left here now.  >>

This does help a lot, Dolores, if you have a vet willing to take some civic 
responsibility and cut you a deal.  A spayed or neutered cat will maintain a 
niche that is then not filled by a fertile cat.  When I was still in mixed 
practice, we used to give folks like you a "fleet rate" that just covered our 
costs, and we had three or four folks who would bring us anywhere from 3 to 6 
cats at a time in live traps.  Our only proviso was that we worked them into 
the schedule at our convenience, so if we were really busy, they might end up 
in a kennel for a day.  But this IS costly, and often not enough to get a 
handle on a really out-of-control situation.

Heidi