Congratulations to the City of Toronto!

Jacqui and I attended the official opening of the City's new spay / neuter clinic last night. How wonderful it was to see everyone's hard work for the animals paying off. The clinic is just opening its doors this month and will be available for their own adoptable animals (from their 4 Toronto Animal Services locations). A fantastic new service is the offer of free spays/neuters for feral kitties. It has been a lot of work and organization - well done everyone involved!!!


Aside from a few kinks that need to be ironed out, the clinic is well on its way to making Toronto's ferals happier, healthier kitties - yay!


Feral cat caregivers can take advantage of traps loaned out by the City to catch ferals for sterilization. All the necessary information and forms will soon be available through Toronto Animal Services' website. In the mean time, caregivers who wish to use the program will need to register the colony and take a TNR workshop (see below for details). Caregivers can contact the Toronto Animal Services clerk at 416-338-6281 for a sterilization appointment upon completion of the workshop.


With this new service and a push for more responsible pet ownership through licensing, Toronto is well on its way to becoming a model city, like Calgary.


A big 'Thank you' too to everyone who contacted us about the beagles at the University of Guelph. Adoption applications are being reviewed and interviews are being set up. The University should have no trouble finding 10 suitable homes for the girls. Additional dogs will be available soon, so if anyone is still interested in adopting a research animals, please give them a call. The person to call at the University's Central Animal Facility is Annette Morrison, one of the animal care technicians. She is responsible for adoptions and can tell you about the other dogs they have.

Annette Morrison
1-519-824-4120 ext: 54308

Alternatively, we have 4 beagles currently waiting to come into the Project Jessie program who would love to go straight into new homes.

We also have 4 cats that will be coming out of the same Guelph VSTEP program towards the end of August. If you are looking to adopt a pair of these cats, please let us know.

Tail wags,
Lia and the AAC crew

***


TNR and Feral Care Workshop
Toronto (East York), Saturday, August 21st

Dear Colony Caretakers,


The next in our series of workshops on TNR and feral colony care will take place in East York:
Anyone interested in feral cat care and population control is most welcome to attend.

This is the perfect time to plan your spay/neuter project and get cats ready for the season-that-shall-not-be-named.

Trap-Neuter-Return and Feral Colony Management


Date: Saturday, August 21st, 2010
Time: 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m
Location: East York Civic Centre, Committee Room A
850 Coxwell Avenue (Coxwell and Mortimer) http://www.toronto.ca/311/assets/PDFs/map_east_york_civic_centre.pdf

Caretakers who would like to access the new Toronto Animal Services clinic for free spays or neuters for ferals must attend a TNR workshop, and register their colony with the Toronto Feral Cat Survey http://www.feraltoronto.com/en/register/.

Workshops are offered monthly in different locations in the city of Toronto.

*Please note that registration for this workshop is by mail only and space is very limited*

Deborah Chalmers
Toronto Feral Cat Project
http://www.feraltoronto.com/