Assistance is coming for Nashville's Community Cats, Pet Community Center Proclaims Collaboration with Mars Petcare for its Community Cat Program

FRANKLIN, Tenn., February 23: February is considered as Spay & Neuter Awareness Month and this year Mars Petcare and Pet Community Center are teaming up to deliver gentle care for approximately 2,500 local community cats. Community cats are outside, free roving cats that have existed near people for over 10,000 years. They have robust links with one another and with their customary open-air homes. With backing from community cat programs, they can enjoy full, contented lives alongside communities of people.

Mars Petcare will sponsor Pet Community Center's Community Cat Program, which concentrates on spay and neuter endeavors of the community cat populace as a crucial means to reduce the number of cats entering local accommodations. The Community Cat Program utilizes established strategies for example Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) and Return-to-Field (RTF) programs, by means of which Pet Community Center vaccinates and spays or neuters community cats, sending cats to their home setting once done.

"Pet Community Center is deeply committed to strengthening the human-animal bond in Middle Tennessee. The Community Cat Program has been an important part of our strategy to lower pet homelessness and shelter euthanasia. We are thrilled to partner with Mars Petcare to expand this program, strengthen our partnership with Metro Nashville Animal Care and Control, support more cat caretakers, and positively impact more cats," stated Pet Community Center's President and CEO, Natalie Corwin.

The program was formed centered on finest practices established by nationwide animal safety organizations and in discussion with frontrunners in cities where community cat programs have been positively executed.

Mars Petcare and its workers are getting engaged via two of its signature volunteer programs – Mars Volunteer Program, a continuing scheme to embolden Associates to return to their communities and the Mars Ambassador Program (MAP), which delivers comprehensive service prospects for Mars Associates globally. This year, a team of Associates from Mars brands around the globe will journey to Middle Tennessee to devote time on this scheme, ascertaining how spay and neuter programs and accommodation clusters can enhance the lives of community cats.

Mars Petcare workers will also undertake to aid construct 100 nourishing posts and 100 accommodation shelters all over the year, which will be dispersed in the winter through a setup of cat colony caretakers, offering community cats with accommodation and respite from the nature’s elements.

"Our team is committed to making Nashville a more pet-friendly city as part of our BETTER CITIES FOR PETS™ program," stated Jam Stewart, director of corporate communications for Mars Petcare, adding, "Caring for community cats is one more way we can do that."

Since its commencement in 2011, Pet Community Center has helped approximately 10,000 community cats, lessened the number of wandering cats entering Metro Animal Care and Control (MACC) by 44 percent since 2014 and donated to the falling of euthanasia of cats from 85 percent in 2013 to 19 percent in 2016.

In attempts to further the encouraging transformation in Nashville, Mayor Barry started an ad-hoc animal welfare advisory group that has been functioning over the previous year to create a metro-wide plan around animal welfare. By means of the Mayor's Public Investment Plan in 2016, the community cat program, a collaboration between Pet Community Center and MACC was allotted $100,000 of city aid. 

"Animal welfare is a quality of life issue, and one that's deeply important to Nashville residents," stated Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, adding, "By working together to care for and protect the most vulnerable animals, we're heading down a path that will allow us to better serve the healthy and adoptable pets and reduce animal overpopulation and euthanasia."