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Felines have friends in high places at university
SBU Cat Network wins prizes for its efforts
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| | | This being a college campus, the urge to ‘customize’ the numerous insulated cat houses across campus proved irresistible. Courtesy SBU Cat Network (click for larger version) | |
August 13, 2009 | 12:10 PM
Stony Brook University is often acknowledged for its academic feats, but on July 29, the recognition was for a campus organization and its feline friendliness. The SBU Cat Network won two $1,000 grants, from Petfinder.com and The Animal Rescue Site's $100,000 Shelter+ Challenge, for receiving the most online votes for a New York state shelter — and nationally — during a one-week period of the contest. The network ranked 12th in the nation overall out of about 11,000 participating animal rescue groups, said Rosemary Jones, who works for The Animal Rescue Site.
The SBU Cat Network was established in 2002 in response to numerous feral cats on campus. Since then it has trapped, vaccinated and spayed or neutered over 300 cats, estimated Nancy Franklin, the group's founder and a psychology professor at the university.
"The goal is to get the population under control by having every cat that we find trapped on campus at least neutered," Franklin said. About 200 feral cats have also been socialized by the group, a feat Franklin describes as "amazing."
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| | | Courtesy SBU Cat Network
(click for larger version) | |
Large populations of feral cats are a problem at many college campuses, said Franklin, and they easily hide in SBU's many wooded areas. "All it takes is a couple of people with contraband cats in the dorms," she said. Cats that are released — most likely when students leave campus for school breaks, she believes — are forced to fend for their survival. "Very often, those animals wind up starving or succumbing to the cold or getting hit by cars or getting attacked by raccoons," Franklin said. "For the ones who survive, they breed very well and, over time, the population multiplies." Without early human interaction, the cats become feral.
The group feeds the cats every day, including when school is not in session. Rita Reagan-Redko, the assistant to the chair in the Department of Technology and Society and a lecturer at the university, is responsible for 13 feeding stations on campus. Ellen Uffelmann, associate for university systems analysis, began managing the five feeding stations near Stony Brook University Medical Center after she realized there were cats in that area, too. "It's a small group on East Campus, we're not large like the West Campus, but dedicated," Uffelmann said.
The network — which Franklin says now extends to hundreds of student and faculty members — also builds insulated shelters for the winter and helps the cats recover from any ailments they suffer. Franklin is currently caring for a 7-week-old kitten that's losing both eyes due to an infection she predicts is either herpes or chlamydia. She said a big chunk of the prize money will go toward medical treatments for cats like this, and others with problems like anemia and lost limbs.
In addition, the grants will help cover the group's basic costs like food, vaccines and the near-$100 cost of neutering each cat. Other funding comes from donations and The Animal Rescue Site's Click to Give program.
"The money from PetFinder [and The Animal Rescue Site's giveaway] is godsent," said Franklin.
However, she warned, while the popularity of the network grows, cats are still released on campus. Franklin and other network supporters spread the word about the perilous threats the animals face when they're abandoned on campus, but they can't accept official drop-offs since their priority is to manage the campus cats, and that's hard enough without an actual facility. Cats that have been trapped, vaccinated and neutered are either marked and released where they were found or, if sociable, put up for adoption on Petfinder.com, like Tess, Little Man, Izzy and Rosie.
Cats with no immediate home are usually taken in by members of the network like Uffelmann, who estimates she's fostered 25 cats, mostly kittens, for the network. She keeps pictures of all of them and hears from most of their adopted owners.
Reagan-Redko also temporarily cares for some, but she said Franklin devotes so much effort to the cats in need — not to mention a whole room in her house — that she calls her Mamma Cat. Considering the success of her group, the title is "purrrfect."
The SBU Cat Network has a website at www.sinc.sunysb.edu/clubs/sbucat with information on how you can help — and more cute and funny photos.
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