PetSmart Charities, Inc. currently provides the City of Miami Beach grant support to fund facilities and a management partnership from The Cat Network, Inc., to deliver a comprehensive community cat trap-neuter-return (TNR) program entitled “Project CatSnip”.
The City’s goal is to develop a program that: is community-wide in scope; effective in humanely reducing the local community cat population by educating the public about the need to sterilize their pets and strays; provide access to low-cost spay/neuter services for stray, homeless and abandoned cats; help members in their efforts to place adoptable cats in loving homes; and advocate non-lethal population control via natural attrition and humane public policy.
SOBE Cats Spay and Neuter, Inc. is a non-profit [501(c)(3)] organization that provides volunteer trappers for The Cat Network, Inc.’s Project CatSnip, which volunteers dedicate their time for the spay and neuter cause. Community cats are retrieved from key locations once a month by staffers beginning on a Friday night. Cats are then transported to the Log Cabin Nursery located on Collins Avenue, where sterilization surgeries are performed on Saturday mornings. Once the surgery is performed, the cats are housed overnight during the recovery phase. On Sunday mornings, volunteers and City staffers release the cats back to their originating locations.
Project CatSnip will be issuing credentials to registered community volunteers, cat feeders, and trappers in order to identify their role in the City, and as such, discourage feeding by untrained individuals, who may create unwanted litter and even attract cats to undesired locations.
During the next six (6) months, SOBE Cats Spay and Neuter, Inc., and the City of Miami Beach will be facilitating a pilot program consisting of the installation of environmentally-friendly feeding stations at key locations with its appropriate signage, where registered volunteer feeders will be able to provide fresh water and clean food to draw the cats at these locations and away from high-traffic areas.
North Shore Open Space Park and Allison Park will be targeted for the pilot program, for the six (6) month period, beginning September 1, 2017 and ending March 1, 2018, in the hope of the successful execution of the pilot program that could later be expanded into other needy areas of the City.
One feeding station will be provided for each cat colony in the pilot program inside North Shore Open Space Park between 87th Street and 79th Street and Allison Park between 67th Street and 64th Street.
At its May 19, 2017 meeting, the Neighborhoods/Community Affairs Committee (NCAC) heard a discussion by SOBE Cats Spay and Neuter, Inc. (SOBE Cats). They reiterated the need for continued financial support from the City, to provide spay and neuter services for community cats. Additionally, three (3) items to be considered: a pilot program to allow the installation of environmentally friendly feeding stations at key locations; to provide formal registration and credentialing for registered volunteers; and the installation of educational signage by the feeding stations. A motion was made by the Committee to have Public Works work with SOBE Cats to determine the proper locations. The item was also to be brought back to the Finance and Citywide Project Committee to have a discussion about possible future funding and implications.
At its July 28, 2017 meeting, the NCAC held a discussion regarding the relocation of the Log Cabin Nursery to a new site, for the purpose of cat spay and neuter surgeries. It was noted that there is a City-owned building located at the North West corner of Collins Avenue and 83rd Street (8300-8310 Collins Avenue), which could be used for this purpose. The concern, however, was that the trailer office may be too small to conduct the surgeries, and maintain the cats overnight while they recuperate. The Committee made a motion to have the Public Works Department find an alternate, suitable and proper location to conduct cat surgeries.
The current proposed location is the 79th Street lot adjacent to the Ocean Rescue facility.