To: Jonathan Rothschild, Mayor of Tucson, Martha Durkin, Interim City Manager, Tucson City Clerk's Office, City Clerk, and Tucson City Council
Save Tucson's cats -- Don't let city kill new community cat program!
Victory! The creator of this petition declared the campaign a success. You can still sign the petition to show support.
Trap Neuter Return is a progressive, non-lethal, and time tested effective long term solution that has tremendous benefits for cats, neighborhoods, municipalities AND entire communities.
The long term benefits to Tucson and Pima County far outweigh the modest short term budget savings gained by defunding this project.
Please do the right thing and support funding for Pima County's community cat program in Tucson.
Why is this important?
Just a month ago, Pima County launched a progressive lifesaving program to save Tucson's homeless cats by spaying and neutering instead of euthanizing them. But now, due to a budget dispute between Pima County and the City of Tucson, the entire program is at risk -- with more shelter deaths likely as a result.
You can help us turn this around by letting Tucson's elected officials know you won’t stand for it!
Pima County's community cat program, approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors just last month, has attracted $900,000 in private funding and is a model of how to humanely and effectively reduce homeless cat populations. By contrast, the cost of the "traditional" approach to managing community cats -- euthanizing them by the thousands, and with no end in sight -- falls entirely on taxpayers and has proven to be both ineffective and publicly unpalatable.
In less than a month, this program has lowered cat euthanasia at Pima Animal Care Center by more than 65 percent and should be the pride of city leaders, not a political football.
Please sign this petition today and take a moment to reach out to Tucson's elected officials and let them know this is the kind of progressive, lifesaving program we want for our city!
Julie Jennings Patterson
P.S. You can make even MORE of an impact by personally emailing your council member and the Mayor.
Emails for the Mayor and Council: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Interim City Manager Martha Durkin's: [email protected]
City Clerk: [email protected] (becomes public record)
Additional points about Trap Neuter Return:
• It is the only proven effective long term solution shown to reduce and stabilize populations by controlling reproduction and eliminating the vacuum effect (where new animals move in to territories others were removed from).
• It saves lives by ending the cycle of shelter killing while dramatically reducing the number of cats and kittens that enter each year.
• Is less costly than sheltering and/or extermination
• Allows more resources for animals already in shelters
• Dramatically reduces or eliminates nuisance behaviors
• Improves both feline and public health
• Is humane, fosters compassion
• It helps the mental health of county employees who are in the position of needlessly taking the life of healthy cats.