Mission, History, Programs
Mission & Vision
FixNation’s mission is to reduce the population of homeless cats by sterilizing as many as possible while demonstrating the effectiveness of Trap-Neuter-Return and colony management for the humane care of homeless cats.
FixNation strives to build a better world for cats and envisions a day when all tame cats have a home, and community cats are spayed/neutered and cared for in their outdoor homes.
History
FixNation was founded by Mark Dodge, an attorney, and Karn Myers, an entertainment executive, a husband and wife team who have long been cat lovers.
The idea to try to help homeless cats started in 1998 when Karn was working for a special effects company. Every morning and afternoon, she noticed two women feeding a colony of feral cats in the adjacent property. Karn quickly befriended the two caregivers, and began a year-long education on the world of homeless, stray and feral cats. Karn began investigating what could be done to help and soon developed momentum. With Mark’s research and networking help, they began working with others who also wanted to offer assistance.
Mark and Karn learned that monthly spay/neuter clinics were being held in San Diego by Feral Cat Coalition (FCC). To duplicate that program and bring it to Los Angeles, they videotaped FCC for reference purposes, put together an organizational plan and made a formal proposal to the outreach program directors of Best Friends Animal Society. Best Friends adopted the traveling clinic model and provided initial funding to begin Catnippers in October 1999. A bi-monthly, all-volunteer clinic run by Mark and Karn, the Catnippers program continued to operate until 2016 and fixed more than 18,000 homeless cats since 2000.
After nearly ten years of successful Catnippers clinics, Karn and Mark knew a permanent facility was needed in order to address the still-growing homeless cat population in L.A. So in 2007, after much planning and fundraising, FixNation began operations – a full-time TNR clinic under a new 501c3 organization.
FixNation became the first, full-time spay-neuter facility in Los Angeles in 2007, providing comprehensive TNR support including free spay/neuter services for homeless cats, TNR outreach and education, as well as affordable care for companion cats, and partnerships to facilitate adoptions. FixNation is a model for TNR and cat population management across the country. Since opening its doors in 2007, FixNation has sterilized more than 220,000 cats in addition to its Catnippers program.
Programs
- Free Spay/Neuter for Community Cats
- Trap-Neuter-Return Education and Training
- Free Humane Trap Loan Program
- Low-Cost Spay Neuter for Pet Cats
- Spay/Neuter & Transport of Adoptable Cats