>> ANIMAL CONTROL
No More Homeless Pets
An Alachua County animal shelter works to save animals
BY JESSICA CHAPMAN
A
hundred caged cats lined the hallway. Many looked identical and most were either terrified or potentially violent. Three cats sat at the check-in table. They looked identical, and a caregiver said they were probably from the same colony. A lot of cats come in from colonies, she said. But then again, a lot of cats come from everywhere. These cats, all stray or feral, were waiting to be spayed and neutered. Every month, caregivers bring cats they have trapped to Operation Catnip to be sterilized to help
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ease the growing population and indirectly stop euthanasia. Operation Catnip is one of the two main programs under No More Homeless Pets, an umbrella organization that is part of a countywide partnership to eliminate euthanasia. Many caregivers at the December Operation Catnip said sterilizing the sick, weak and unloved animals around their home is the most humane thing they can do. “I love cats,” said Debbie Nichtberger, who brought a cat to Operation Catnip. “There are just so many.”
Nichtberger feeds more than 60 cats in a colony behind her house. The one she brought to the December Operation Catnip was found in an abandoned house. Although it has become a burden, she does not want to stop feeding the cats and then see them die, she said. “It’s just too much sometimes,” she said. “You just do as much as you can.” The founders of No More Homeless Pets had similar feelings when they began the Alachua Countycontinued on page 101