FixNation and Valley Vet Non Profit (VVNP) are teaming up this summer to bring you even more days when you can get your feral cats fixed for free.

Starting in August, VVNP will be open on the 2nd Monday of every month for a day dedicated to fixing feral cats. This is an extra day above and beyond when VVNP is normally open, as a way to expand how many feral cats are being fixed within our community each month. VVNP will fix up to 50 feral cats on these special Mondays, and the program will be sponsored by FixNation.

This program kicks off on Monday, August 9th. The spay/neuter services will be done at VVNP’s clinic at 1659 East Los Angeles Avenue in Simi Valley.

The same great “free feral program” that you’ve come to know from FixNation still applies for these Mondays, including:

- Spay/neuter surgery
- Physical exam
- FVRCP distemper combo vaccine
- Rabies vaccine
- Revolution (for fleas, earmites, mange, hookworms and roundworms)
- Eartip
- Antibiotic
- Fluids
- Pain medication
- Droncit as needed (for tapeworms)
- Lots of TLC!

VVNP will also offer FeLV/FIV testing and microchipping for an additional fee. FeLV/FIV combo tests are $20, FeLV only tests are $10, microchips are $25 and hernia repairs are $15. Convenia injections, if recommended by the vet, are $25.

Only feral cats will be booked on these special Mondays, and all cats will be eartipped. Any tame companion cats or friendly strays should be scheduled at either FixNation or VVNP during normal business hours.

Feral cats must come in to VVNP in humane traps and be fully covered (no carriers or other containers please). Drop off time is between 8:00 – 8:30 a.m. and pick up is between 2:00 – 2:30 pm. Appointments must be made in advance, and trappers can book appointments by calling VVNP directly at 805-584-3823.

Both FixNation and Valley Vet Non Profit are very excited to be bringing you this new outreach program. We hope it helps both the trappers and the cats out in the West Valley.

FixNation will continue to look for new and creative ways to bring more spay/neuter services to other parts Los Angeles. We firmly believe that public access to free spay/neuter services is a critical component in homeless cat management. Collectively, we can make a difference.

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

To view the on-air coverage with FixNation team members, view the 3-part series:

1) http://www.telemundo52.com/video/19049779/index.html

FixNation is a non-profit organization providing free spay/neuter services for homeless, stray and feral cats, as well as reduced rate spay/neuter services for tame cats. Our goal is to humanely reduce the number of homeless cats throughout Los Angeles by sterilizing as many as possible. We focus on providing these free spay/neuter services for “managed colonies”, which means food, water and shelter is provided to these cats on a daily basis.

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 they are here for surgery:

• Spay/neuter surgery
• Physical exam
• Rabies vaccine
• FVRCP vaccine (feline distemper combo vaccine)
• Revolution (for fleas, earmites, mange, hookworms, roundworms and a heartworm protection all for 30 days)
• Pain medication
• Fluids
• Antibiotic
• Droncit injection (for tapeworms), as needed
• Limited medical treatment
• Ear-tip
• 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 apply a bit of pain medication paste to the eartip to make it even more comfortable for the cat.

Eartip example

Since we have only one opportunity with the feral cats, we choose to provide all that we can while they’re here for surgery.

We can do small eartips for any stray cats or kittens who you may be trying to adopt out.

Tame Companion Cats

FixNation offers, on a limited basis, reduced rate spay/neuter services for tame, companion cats who are not being eartipped. The cost of a female/spay is $55 and a male/neuter is $40 (rates effective as of 1/1/10). Vaccines are $8 each and Revolution is $15.

We do accept L.A. city coupons towards the cost of the spay or neuter.

Additional Services

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

• Microchipping – $25
• Feline Leukemia/FIV combo testing – $20 for ferals, $25 for tames
• Nail trims (tame cats only) – $5

Please be aware that our vaccine, testing and microchipping services are only provided at the time the cat is here for spay/neuter service. Since our main mission is to humanely reduce the number of homeless, stray and feral cats in Los Angeles, this is where we concentrate our time and attention.

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

]]> http://fixnation.org/2010/03/fixnations-services/feed/ 0 http://fixnation.org/2010/02/an-exclusive-video-about-fixnation-courtesy-of-found-animals-foundation/ http://fixnation.org/2010/02/an-exclusive-video-about-fixnation-courtesy-of-found-animals-foundation/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:06:37 +0000 admin http://fixnation.org/?p=1197 Introducing a premiere video about FixNation clinic, courtesy of our friends at Found Animals Foundation. See our state-of-the-art clinic, meet our kitty clients and learn about our mission to spay and neuter the homeless cats all across Los Angeles.

Click here to view the embedded video.

About Found Animals Foundation, Inc.:

Found Animals is a privately funded non-profit dedicated to minimizing shelter euthanasia. They create programs designed to reduce shelter intake, increase adoption rates and focuses on developing sustainable animal welfare business models. For more information, visit their website or add them as a fan on Facebook today.

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/ 4 http://fixnation.org/2009/11/bringing-tame-cats/ http://fixnation.org/2009/11/bringing-tame-cats/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:14:45 +0000 admin http://fixnation.org/?p=1005 Tame cats are considered pet cats or even friendly stray cats who have been abandoned or “strayed” from home, but were likely once pet cats. Tame cats can be picked up, held and easily handled. For more clarification on the differences between tame, stray and feral cats, see our FAQ section (above link).

No initial application is needed to bring a tame cat to our clinic, but advance reservations are required.

You can call our front desk at 818.524.2287 x 4 to speak to our receptionist and get booked for a spay/neuter reservation. The best time to call is between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. daily.

Tame cats will need to come to our clinic in hard plastic carriers; no pet bags, cardboard boxes or cardboard carriers are allowed. We require only one cat per carrier.

It is not required to show proof of income level in order to be eligible to bring a cat to our clinic.

For tame cats not being eartipped, our services are $55 for a female/spay or $40 for a male/neuter. See our price list under “Forms and Resources” in the lower right hand box for additional services offered.

If you are low-income or for any homeless or stray cats you are trying to help, we will provide free spay/neuter services, vaccines and flea treatment provided that the cat is eartipped (see our section “What We Do” > “Our Services” for more information).

Please also read our article “Appointment Day” so you know what to expect on the day of your appointment.

Feral cats will need to come to our clinic in humane cat traps, which we can loan to you under our free trap loan program. The reason we require humane cat traps is so we can anesthetize the cat through the trap. Since feral cats are not handleable, this makes it safer for both the cat as well as our vet tech.

For feral cats, both an initial application and advance reservations are required.

Click here to download an initial application form:

Feral Cat Application

Once you’ve completed the application, please email it back to us at info@fixnation.org or fax it to 818.767.7791. You can also mail it in to 7680 Clybourn Ave., LA, CA, 91352.

Someone from our team will call you back in approximately 72 hours after we receive it. We will talk to you about your specific situation, answer any questions you may have, schedule time for you to come in and pick up humane traps and get trained (if need be), and get you scheduled for spay/neuter reservations.

All applications are accepted provided that you agree to follow our clinic guidelines. Our guidelines are covered in the following documents, which you will need to thoroughly read and agree to follow to be eligible to come to our clinic:

• Humane Trapping Instructions
• Clinic Check-In and Pick-Up
• Pre- and Post-Surgery Care
• Safe Housing and Transporting

If you are helping a friend or family member who does not have access to the Internet, an application packet can be mailed out to them. Please call 818.524.2287 x 2 and leave the person’s name, address, phone number and that you need a feral cat application sent out. A packet will be mailed out to them.

If you submitted a feral cat application and you do have traps, we will call you to go over our clinic guidelines and protocol with you and immediately get you booked for reservations.

If you submitted a feral cat application and you do not have traps, we will call you to schedule time for you to come in to pick up humane traps from us and get trained on how to use them. When you come in for training, we will go through our clinic guidelines with you and get you booked for initial reservations.

FixNation does loan out humane traps, carriers and equipment free of charge to the public. 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 have three trap depots where you can pick up traps from:

• FixNation clinic – just west of the Burbank airport
• Pasadena
• Palmdale

Please make sure to specify what trap depot is closest to you so we can accommodate you best.

You must have a reservation in advance before you can bring a cat into the clinic. Please be specific when booking reservations – be sure to book tame cat reservations if you have a tame or friendly stray cat, or feral reservations if you have a feral cat.

How To Trap a Feral Cat: Video Series

The videos are presented by Liz Cava, our FixNation master trapper. She covers the main points you will need to know about proper TNR and safely trapping feral cats.

If you do borrow traps from FixNation, when you come in to pick up the traps we’ll give you a 15-minute training session on how to trap. The training session will explain the various parts of the humane trap, how the traps work and how to properly trap and release feral cats. We’ll also review what you’ll need to do when you’re holding the cats overnight, post-surgery care, how to transport them, as well as our clinic check-in procedures.

We’ll give you all of the information you need to know to make the whole TNR process as simple as possible.