Dear FixNation Friend,

Homeless cats need your help! You may be wondering why your support is so urgently needed at this time. It’s simple: You can help end the suffering.

Right now, there are more than a million homeless cats and kittens living in Los Angeles, and 40,000 cats are killed in our city and county shelters each year.

FixNation is a nonprofit organization that fixes homeless cats as part of a Trap-Neuter-Return program or “TNR” for short. TNR means cats are fixed so they cannot breed and are then returned to live out their lives on the streets. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best we can do. If we do nothing, their numbers will grow and the killing will continue.

Our mission is to end this cycle of suffering by providing free spay/neuter surgery and basic medical care for L.A.’s stray and feral cats. Our clinic is the first of its kind in the nation, operating full-time and providing free services for homeless cats. We fix more than 17,000 cats each year. It costs $1.5M annually to deliver these services to cats in need.

You’ve shown how much you care about homeless cats. You don’t like any more than we do that innocent cats die every day in L.A. shelters. So we’re reaching out to you. Your gift will help reduce the number of homeless cats in Los Angeles, and in turn save cats’ lives.

Please make a generous gift to FixNation today. Your donation, no matter the size, will help us maintain our full-time veterinary clinic to help homeless cats. Please donate today.

Thank you, we appreciate all you do for the animals.

Sincerely,

Open Letter

To all of the donors, clients, employees, volunteers, sponsors, friends and supporters of FixNation:

Each year, Los Angeles Magazine searches out to find a limited number of special companies and organizations that deserve to be honored and recognized as the “Best of LA” in categories representing the wide variety of goods and services that make up the rich texture of Los Angeles as a community. This year, we are proud to say that FixNation – your FixNation – has been named the Best in our category – stray cat (spay-neuter) clinic.

The cover and inside piece on this accolade, the latter featuring a photo of “Super Cat”, are on the pages which follow¹. Karn and I were invited to and attended the recognition party LA Magazine hosted last night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where we met many other honorees and the publication’s key executives involved in this years BOLA. It was our honor to do so, not for the personal recognition it provided, but rather the opportunity it provides to shine the light on our mission – one that all of you share, and do so much to bring us closer every day to the end of feline homelessness and the dawn of humane enlightenment in our society.

Truly, you are the ones who deserve this award and recognition, so it is my genuine pleasure to share it with you in this spirit…

Sincerely,

Mark Dodge

President

¹ Article erred in citing our start year as 1999, which is when we launched Best Friends Catnippers. FixNation actually started in 2007.

FixNation is a non-profit organization providing free spay/neuter services for homeless stray and feral cats. We also offer low-cost spay/neuter services for tame pet cats. Our goal is to humanely reduce the number of homeless cats throughout Los Angeles by sterilizing as many as possible.

FixNation supports Trap-Neuter-Return, or TNR for short. TNR is a community-based program where concerned citizens humanely trap feral cats, have them spayed or neutered, and then return them to the exact location where they were trapped so they can be cared for and live out their natural lives. We loan out humane traps for free to the public, plus we provide training on how to properly and safely TNR. We make it as easy for you as possible to help the homeless cats in your neighborhood.

Our “Free Feral Program” for Homeless Stray & Feral Cats

FixNation offers free spay/neuter services for homeless stray and feral cats. Under our “Free Feral Program,” all homeless cats who will be eartipped for identification purposes will receive the following free services at the time of surgery:

• Spay or neuter surgery
• Physical exam
• Rabies vaccine
• Feline distemper vaccine (FVRCP)
• Revolution – to treat fleas, mange, ear mites, hookworms and roundworms
• Pain medication
• Fluids
• Antibiotic
• Droncit injection – for tapeworms, only as needed
• Limited medical treatment
• Lots of TLC!

The eartip is the universal symbol that an outdoor or free-roaming cat has been fixed. It is done while the cat is under anesthesia, is relatively painless for the cat, and does not significantly alter their beauty. We also go one step further and apply a bit of pain medication paste to the freshly tipped ear, to make it even more comfortable for the cat.

Eartip

We can do small eartips for any homeless cats or kittens who you may be trying to adopt out and our services will still be free, provided the cat or kitten is indeed homeless. Just make sure to request a small eartip when you check in if this is the case.

You do not need to live within the city of Los Angeles in order to bring cats to our clinic. We will service cats from any area, provided the cats can be safely transported to and from our facility.

Click here to get started with our “Free Feral Program” today

Tame Pet Cats

FixNation offers low-cost spay/neuter services for tame pet cats who are not being eartipped. The cost of a female/spay is $55 and a male/neuter is $40.

We also offer the following additional services for tame cats while they are here for spay/neuter surgery:

• Rabies vaccine – $8
• Distemper vaccine (FVRCP) – $8
• Revolution (flea treament and dewormer) – $20
• Microchipping – $25
• Feline Leukemia/FIV combo testing – $25 for cats not being eartipped
• Nail trims (tame cats only) – $5

Please be aware that our additional services are only provided at the time the cat is here for spay/neuter surgery. Since our main mission is to humanely reduce the number of homeless cats in Los Angeles, this is where we concentrate our time and attention. We do offer low-cost monthly vaccine and microchip clinics, in case your cat is already fixed and you are interested in vaccines or microchips only.

Click here to get started and make a tame cat appointment

Let’s face it, cats are part of our community. Both the ones who call the outdoors their home and the ones who live inside our houses. TNR starts with people just like you. When you decide to take action to help the cats within our community, or even fix your own cat, you help to build a better community for all.

We are now accepting Visa, Mastercard and Discover cards (sorry, no Amex.)

Not only can use your credit or debit card to pay for any services charges at the end of the day, but you can also use your card to make a donation right at our front desk, too.

We know how much you are doing for the kitties in your care, and we thank you for it. Hopefully this small step will make your life just a little easier while you’re going about it.

Ericka has been working in news for over ten years. Born in Peru, Ericka moved to the United States at a young age. She graduated from Rider University with a communications degree. She then set off working for big industry names like Univision, Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” and WSVN in Miami and Telemundo 47 in New York. Today,  Ericka is the evening weather anchor for Telemundo 52 in LA, one of the largest Spanish television networks in the world. In 2009 Ericka earned her meteorology degree and earned the prestigious American Meteorology Society seal of approval. Her personality, versatility and knowledge have gained her respect and a huge following. Ericka’s Photo galleries and Internet segments such as “Ericka Te lo Cuenta” are amongst the most trafficked in the Telemundo website.

Ericka joined forces with FixNation because of her love of cats and strong desire to help the community at large. Sharing a common vision of “No More Homeless Cats in LA”, Ericka is using her vivacious personality and tapping in to her wide fan base to help drive home the importance of spay/neuter and to explain what Trap-Neuter-Return is all about.

“Many people in the Spanish-speaking community have a great love of animals and want to help the cats within their community, but simply don’t know about TNR or what resources are available to help them locally” says Ericka. “By letting people know about FixNation and the free spay/neuter services they offer, I can help show people how easy it is to make a positive difference in the world around them.”

Ericka visited FixNation with her camera crew and showcased the coverage and story on her heavily trafficked Telemundo website. She also invited FixNation’s Spanish-speaking team members to join her on air, with tame kitten in tow, to talk to her audience about free-roaming cats and the benefits of TNR.

“We couldn’t be more pleased that Ericka is helping us reach the Spanish-speaking community,” says Kim Senn, VP of Operations at FixNation. “Ericka is an extremely popular, influential woman with fans who follow her everywhere she goes. We are thrilled to have her help in reaching out to the Hispanic community on the importance of Trap-Neuter-Return for our community cats.”

More exciting plans are in store in throughout 2010 for Ericka and FixNation to team up on educational outreach projects for the Spanish-speaking community. Together, through education and increased awareness, they plan to turn the tide on the plight of homeless cats and to reduce the pet overpopulation in Los Angeles, helping both people and animals alike lead better lives.

To get to know Ericka Pino, go to:

http://www.Telemundo52.com/erickapino

To view her gallery of FixNation, go to:

http://www.telemundo52.com/noticias/5868721/detail.html

Click here to view the embedded video.

Since Cats first opened on the West End stage in 1981, it has become one of the world’s best known and best loved musicals. With a plot based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and award-winning music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber; CATS, originally directed by Trevor Nunn, has since been presented in over 20 countries and in about 250 cities. The production ran for 18 years on Broadway, a record-setting 21 years in London, won seven Tony Awards and is the longest running tour in American theatre history.

CATS has come back to Los Angeles! The production is visiting the Pantages Theatre for two weeks in March. Graciously, the Pantages Theatre and the production of CATS offered to partner with FixNation for a special, one-time fundraising and “friendraising” event on Wednesday, March 10th. FixNation was granted a block of well-situated tickets to CATS to sell, with the proceeds going to help the non-profit clinic.

The evening started with a VIP cocktail reception held at the elegant Katsuya restaurant in Hollywood, with food, wine and drinks. The hit of the party was a visit from some of the costumed cast members from CATS, and guest attendees could get their photo taken with the Cats on the red carpet. An exclusive video on FixNation clinic was also premiered, giving guests a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of the clinic and how the mission got started.

The highlight of the evening was the award-winning Broadway production of CATS at the Pantages Theatre. Our celebrity guest, Corey Feldman, took the stage before the start of the performance to say a few words about the plight of homeless cats, how TNR can make such a huge difference in their lives, and about FixNation’s free spay/neuter services for homeless, stray and feral cats. Corey and his son Zen stayed to watch the performance, as well as take a few photos with the cast members from CATS. We appreciate his coming out to help our charitable event, and his passion and commitment to bettering the lives of animals.

We would like to thank our three very generous sponsors who made this magical evening possible: The Angela Collier Foundation, The Rascal & Chloe Fund, and Found Animals Foundation.

Thanks also goes out to a very special donor and friend, the Dax Foundation, who purchased some CATS tickets that we awarded to some “unsung heroes” who are out in the field night after night trapping, caring for colonies, and making an overall difference in the lives of homeless cats. This special gift allowed people who might not otherwise be attending a chance to take an evening off from their hard work and join us in some fun.

We extend our grateful and sincere thanks to everyone who came out to support this event, and in the words of the beautiful Grizabella, we cherish the special Memories that we made!

]]> http://fixnation.org/2010/02/fixnation-partners-with-the-broadway-musical-cats-for-a-special-night-2/feed/ 2 http://fixnation.org/2010/01/celebrate-spay-neuter-month-with-found-animals-and-facebook/ http://fixnation.org/2010/01/celebrate-spay-neuter-month-with-found-animals-and-facebook/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:54:05 +0000 admin http://fixnation.org/?p=1118 Did you know February is National Spay/Neuter Month? To help us celebrate, Found Animals has decided to donate up to $10,000 to FixNation… but exactly how much depends on you!

Throughout the month of February, Found Animals will be donating $1 to FixNation for every new Facebook fan who signs up with them… up to $10,000 total. They will be granting these “celebration donations” to three lucky spay/neuter organizations:  FixNation, Clinico and AngelDogs Foundation.

All YOU have to do to help us earn this money is click here to invite your friends, family and neighbors to become a fan of Found Animals on Facebook. As their fan base grows, Found Animals donates more money to us for free spay/neuter and YOU help save more lives… it’s that simple!

TNR is a community-based, humane approach to controlling homeless cat overpopulation. It involves concerned citizens humanely trapping feral cats, getting them spayed and neutered (at clinics like FixNation), and then returning them to their natural environment so they can live out their lives. It is the humane alternative to trapping and killing cats at our city shelters, which is inhumane, consistently does not work, not to mention very costly to taxpayers like us.

While the city isn’t stopping private citizens from doing their own TNR, this ruling will suspend the city shelters from distributing our clinic flyers to educate people about TNR or allowing shelter employees to encourage TNR as an alternative to people as they are there dropping off cats at the shelter. It also ceases any city coupon funding that our clinic can use towards homeless cats, which is critical in helping us cover the cost of spay/neuter services to make them free for you.

Without TNR and spay/neuter, the homeless cat populations in this city will explode exponentially, which means many more cats will end up being killed at our city shelters. TNR has been the “unofficial” policy for years, until just last week when this judge forced the city to suspend it. Already our city shelter euthanasia rates are through the roof due to a bad economy and home foreclosures. This will seriously exacerbate the situation.

Want to take action? Here’s what you can do to help:

1) Please take a moment to sign the petition to show your support for TNR, and please share this with your friends and neighbors so they are aware.

Sign the Petition

2) We want to hear your great stories about how TNR has helped you and your neighborhood! If you have TNR’d homeless cats and have personally witnessed the positive difference this has made in your community, please take time to send us your story.

info@fixnation.org

3) Finally, if you do live in Los Angeles, contact your city council members and city representatives. Make sure they clearly know that you do not support this ruling, you do not support the killing of more homeless cats and that you DO support TNR. Even if you don’t live in California, please voice your opinion and support us. Post to Facebook, post to Twitter, please help us to get the word out.

Directory of City Council Members

If we all speak up, this ruling can be overturned and overcome. It’s not too late, and your voice counts!

With sincere thanks,

FixNation

————————–

From our Founder and President, Mark Dodge S. Dodge, Esq.

Wild bird groups sued the City of Los Angeles in 2008 to stop its support of Trap-Neuter-Return, the humane, community based method to control feral cat overpopulation. They claimed that under the California Environmental Quality Act, the City of LA could not provide discount spay neuter coupons to feral cat caregivers or promote TNR without an Environmental Study and Impact Report, based upon the utterly false premise that if TNR is promoted by the City, fewer cats will be killed in shelters, meaning more cats left in the environment to kill birds.

Last week, after a summary trial of this action, Judge Thomas McKnew, of the LA Superior Court, bought into this spurious argument and issued an injunction preventing any City support of TNR.

Whether or not this decision is appealed and the injunction stayed, it is time for humane-minded reasonable citizens of Los Angeles to speak out against this decision and do everything possible to show the Judge and the wild bird groups that we are opposed to anything but wholehearted, enthusiastic government support of TNR in Los Angeles.

The simple fact is that TNR does not produce more cats by “returning” them after surgery, as the wild bird advocates claim, it merely transforms cats already in the environment from being the prolific breeders they are, into sterile community cats, thereby reducing their numbers over time. The consequence is clearly not adverse to the “environment.”

Without TNR, we would see more and more cats killed in shelters, while at the same time the homeless population would simply continue to expand. Moreover, the impact of cats on bird populations is miniscule as compared to habitat loss, high rise windows, airplanes, weather and other predators, contrary to the claims made by many wild bird advocacy groups in their blind opposition to TNR.

This decision, if not overcome via legal or administrative means, will not mean an end to TNR in Los Angeles, but as long as it remains in effect, it will produce a loss of City support and discount spay-neuter coupons for feral cats, outcomes which are unacceptable.

TNR brings the community together in a positive way, promotes humanity to be humane, takes the pressure off of municipal budgets and allows society as a whole to work positively toward a long term solution to the problem of pet overpopulation. It deserves to be supported by City of Los Angeles. Until that support can resume, we ask the citizens of Los Angeles to show their support for TNR.

Visit FixNation at http://www.fixnation.org for more information on how you can make a difference for homeless cats in your own community.

]]> http://fixnation.org/2009/12/judges-ruling-impacts-tnr-in-los-angeles/feed/ 0 http://fixnation.org/2009/11/our-trap-loan-trap-training-programs/ http://fixnation.org/2009/11/our-trap-loan-trap-training-programs/#comments Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:04:07 +0000 admin http://blog.fixnation.org/?p=470 FixNation loans out humane traps, carriers and equipment free of charge to the public, provided you are using our services.

The traps we loan out are humane traps that won’t harm the cats. While the traps may look intimidating, they are actually very safe. Using a humane trap is the safest solution to catch a feral cat – safer for both the cat and for you. It’s also the best way to temporarily house and transport them. Furthermore, it’s safer and easier for our vet techs to anesthetize the cat through a trap, as well as monitor the cat’s recovery post surgery.

Traps and equipment may be borrowed for up to 30 days, provided you are actively trapping and booking reservations with FixNation. All equipment must be returned promptly or upon request.

We do require a credit card and a driver’s license in order to check equipment out, but your card is not charged unless the equipment is not returned timely. If you don’t have a credit card, we can hold a refundable check or cash deposit instead. A replacement fee of $75.00 per trap is required if a trap is damaged, stolen or lost. There is also a $5 per day late fee if a trap is not returned promptly within the 30 day period.

We are a life-based organization and our mission is to help cats – therefore our traps are not to be used for any purpose other than trapping cats to bring in to FixNation to be spayed or neutered. They are not to be used anywhere else, for any other reason, whatsoever.

It’s imperative that you never leave open, set traps unattended for any length of time. You should always stay within earshot or eyeshot of your traps. A trapped cat is very vulnerable. There are those rare instances when a cat could get hurt going into a trap. Passersby may release a trapped cat, not knowing what your intent is, or worse yet, steal your trap altogether. Cars could accidentally run over a trap in an unattended parking lot. You could inadvertently trap another wild animal (i.e. skunk, opossum, raccoon) who may injure themselves trying to gnaw their way out of the trap (opossums often do this). Even when you think it’s safe in someone’s yard, sprinklers could go off around a trapped cat, or a stray dog could approach. Please do not ever put a cat in jeopardy by leaving traps unattended.

Traps need to be returned to FixNation fully cleaned. When returning traps, please ensure all newspaper and bits of food are removed and traps are scrubbed down with soap and water. Please also remove any FixNation masking tape ID letters (not the plastic trap ID tag, but masking tape ID letters) that may have been used at prior clinic reservations. These should be removed from both the trap and the cover, each and every time you bring the trap into the clinic.

If you do plan to TNR on an ongoing basis, we suggest you invest in one or two traps of your own. We prefer Tomahawk model traps; that is what the majority of our inventory is. Click here for more information on ordering your own Tomahawk trap today.