Trap, neuter group trying to fix stray cat problem in Mt. Pleasant
By Kendall Keys and James Paxson
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MT. PLEASANT, Michigan (WNEM) — Leaders in Mt. Pleasant are planning to trap and neuter stray cats living throughout the city.
“Our stray cats here in Mt. Pleasant has really gotten out of hand over the past few years,” said Dawn Jevicks, co-chair of Central Cat Coalition.
She said getting the stray cat issue under control is going to take a massive spay and neuter operation.
“Each time someone else lets a cat that has not been fixed outdoors, it most likely will lead to at least four, six more cats for the first batch. And that will continue until somebody thinks to grab that cat and then fix it,” Jevicks said.
Desiree Bigard is Chairman of the Board of the grass roots operation called Central Cat Coalition.
“I think most of the people want to help these cats,” Bigard said.
She estimates there is about 2,000 community cats. The group wants to target those cats and get them fixed.
“There’s not really a movement in place that has resources to help people who want to help these cats,” Bigard said.
Their goal is to trap, neuter, then return feral, or stray cats.
“They’re trapped, grabbed, and taken to a storage facility that is temperature controlled until they are loaded, transported to the clinic doing the procedures, brought back to a temperature-controlled facility, then they have to recover, it could be one, three days where the cat needs to recover before being returned to that property,” Jevicks said.
“We also want to see the rate of kitten deaths go down, because nobody likes to see the kittens die, it breaks your heart and it’s also really hard on the veterinary professionals who are euthanizing healthy cats just because they don’t have owners,” Bigard said.
The group is in the early stages of gathering resources and is working on setting up a way to donate.
They hope to get the operation underway by May with mobile home parks considered key areas for population control.
“We want to help the cats, we want to help the vets, and we want to help our community,” Bigard said.
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