Yolo County shelter strain prompts push for regular spay-neuter and weekend TNR clinics

Karen Hill, a local resident, told the Yolo County Animal Services JPA that “the issue of homeless feral cats has reached what many consider a crisis point.” Hill and other volunteers urged faster action to reduce cat reproduction through spay-neuter and TNR programs.

Shelter manager Stephanie Amato gave the board a snapshot of current operations: “Right now, we are, we have a 100 dogs in our in our care. We have 45 cats on-site right now that we are caring for, and that's a variety of cat adult cats and kittens. We have approximately 80 kittens still in foster.” Amato said the shelter recently took in a large multi-cat intake — 22 indoor cats from a single West Sacramento household — and is handling a large rabbit cruelty case.

Volunteers described two near-term remedies: (1) expanded regular TNR clinics using a mobile spay-neuter vendor Karen and others contracted with (identified in the meeting as Snip, a Bay Area mobile spay-neuter service), and (2) using existing county shelter clinic space on Sundays for free or sponsored TNR surgeries. Jill Bonner, a volunteer organizer, said the shelter has clinic space that “is not used…