Los Angeles supports its community and its cats

Nearly 10 years after the L.A. City Council committed to making the city a no-kill community, the struggle continues. Although the 90% threshold was achieved for dogs four years ago, lifesaving efforts for cats have been much more challenging. However, a program currently under consideration would likely push L.A. over the top.

The greatest barrier to saving more cats has been a legal injunction preventing the City from any involvement with trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs. As a result, the number of young kittens entering L.A. shelters is on the rise in recent years, overwhelming available resources.

Last month, the City released the details of its long-awaited Citywide Cat Program, which allocates funding for the surgical sterilization of 20,000 free-roaming cats annually, over and above those funds already allocated for residents’ pets. The process is simple: cats are caught, evaluated by veterinarians, sterilized, vaccinated, and returned to their original location. This promises to be a game-changer without hampering any of the progress already made—overturning the injunction and paving the way for L.A. to become the largest no-kill community in the country.