The Safe Harbor Animal Coalition has announced plans to build a spay and neuter clinic, dedicated to serving thousands of unowned and abandoned animals in Baldwin County.
Recently, three separate …
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The Safe Harbor Animal Coalition has announced plans to build a spay and neuter clinic, dedicated to serving thousands of unowned and abandoned animals in Baldwin County.
Recently, three separate Trap/Neuter/Release (TNR) groups from the tri-city area formed the Safe Harbor Animal Coalition, allowing them to pool resources and volunteers and better help Foley, Gulf Shores, and Orange Beach with TNR efforts.
Now, with the help of the donation of a building, the group is able to move forward with plans for the clinic.
“We’re at a point that we need a place for these animals to go,” said Safe Harbor Chairman Steve Solomon. “There’s so many unowned, domesticated animals that are being released or abandoned daily, and we need a facility to keep them in … There’s an estimated 20,000 plus feral and free-roaming community cats, and we’re lucky to get 15 vet spots a month.”
Local builder Jim Brown has donated a 4,000 square foot building with build out to the organization that will be turned into a spay/neuter clinic for recognized rescues and unowned, homeless animals.
The group plans to have the clinic up and running this year, and already have found area vets who are ready and willing to volunteer their time at the clinic. The clinic will not be used for the general public, and will be purposed to help control the cat population in South Baldwin County. Older cats will be released back into their community, but kittens will be adopted out whenever possible.
“The cats in our area are reproducing at light speed because of our warm climate and the tourism industry giving them a constant food supply,” said Safe Harbor Acting Executive Director Stephanie Christie. “The solution is putting these TNR efforts into place, building a spay and neuter clinic for that purpose, and then rehoming these cats whenever possible and getting them off the streets.”
A large number of cat colonies populate Baldwin County, with numerous cats finding their way into people’s yards and neighborhoods as well as onto vehicles. In some places, colonies have grown to unmanageable sizes, with a number of citizens reporting the felines as nuisances in their community.
To help reduce the population of area cat colonies, Safe Harbor is working with outside rescue groups to transport adoptable cats from our area to places with colder climates, where there is a higher demand for feline adoptions.
Christie said that there are some inexpensive deterrent options that will condition a cat to stay out of a yard, such as self-monitored water sprinklers, but the larger concern, she said, is felines remaining on the street unvaccinated.
“Not only will TNR efforts help reduce further growth of local cat colonies, but it will also help get unvaccinated cats off of the streets, which if not treated can quickly become a public health issue,” Christie said. “When a cat is taken by a TNR program for a vet appointment, they also receive vaccinations, which in turn help keep men, women, children, and domesticated pets safe.”
With the clinic underway, Safe Harbor is working to develop operation procedures and a strategic plan stretching into the next eight years. Members of the group recently toured the GBHS Spay/Neuter & Critical Care Clinic, which will be the model for the South Baldwin clinic, and have met with Best Friends Animal Society, which is making Alabama one of their priorities.
“What we need now is a call to action,” said Christie. “We need people to like, follow, and share on all of our social media accounts to get the word out on what we’re doing and when our adoption events take place. Then we need people to volunteer. But most importantly we need funds, we need donations. We also have an Amazon wishlist of things that we need for the cats we have now and for our future clinic. We’re also asking if anyone has any land that they would like to donate for a cat sanctuary, even five acres, to help remove beach cats and cats who are in danger of being killed.”
Safe Harbor is all volunteer run and operated, with 100% of donations going to animals in need. The group asks if anyone knows of a cat colony to please report it, as they are working to create records of the current feral and stray population.
“If 20 people donated just $5, that would vaccinate and spay or neuter one cat,” Solomon said. “So think about if everyone in South Baldwin donated $5; think of what our organization could do with that money. It takes a village to fix this, and we’re going to do it in the most compassionate and caring way that we can.”
Safe Harbor is hosting an adoption event on Feb. 1 at Foley PetSense, and will be at the Orange Beach Seafood Festival at The Wharf on Feb. 29. Check out Safe Harbor Animal Coalition online and on Facebook for more information and upcoming events.
