Project Delta View Cats will ensure free roaming cats are trapped, altered vaccinated and returned to their habitat.
Pittsburg, CA – A new project offered by Contra Costa Animal Services (CCAS), in partnership with the City of Pittsburg, is taking significant steps towards managing the overpopulation of free-roaming cats (community cats) on the waterfront.
Project Delta View Cats is a volunteer-led humane maintenance program designed to ensure that free roaming cats in the area are trapped, altered (spayed/neutered), vaccinated and returned to their habitat. The project will also establish community cat caretakers who will feed and water the community cats at designated feeding stations at Riverview Park provided by the Pittsburg Department of Public Works.
Project Delta View Cats will primarily service the areas from Riverview Park/Linda Vista Avenue to 4th Street and across to Harbor Street, including Basin #3, Central Harbor and Marina Promenade – all waterfront areas that have high concentrations of free-roaming cats.
“We’re very excited to be partnering with the City of Pittsburg to launch this much-needed program to improve the experience for the residents and cats who reside in and around the Pittsburg waterfront,” says Beth Ward, Director of CCAS. “The waterfront has long been a hotspot of feline activity, ensuring that community cats are altered will greatly reduce the potential for population growth in this area.”
CCAS and the City of Pittsburg will be joined by local animal welfare organizations, including Community Concern for Cats and Friends of Contra Costa Animal Shelters (FOCCAS), who will assist with volunteer recruiting, cat trapping and project coordination.
“Our goal is to humanely reduce the number of abandoned community cats outdoors, leading to much less risk and harm to the cats,” says Linda Rodgers, a volunteer leader with Project Delta View Cats. “Over time, this will reduce predation of birds and wildlife and decrease the potential for public health and nuisance-related issues.”
Community cat colonies are formed when free-roaming cats identify an area, such as the Pittsburg waterfront, that provides access to food, water and shelter. The unaltered community cats in that colony will breed (one cat can have 12-25 kittens in one year), causing the colony to grow and ultimately overpopulate. Overpopulation of community cat colonies can often result in health and safety impacts to residents, the environment and the community cats that live in the colony. Project Delta View Cats will manage the colonies along the waterfront and ensure that community cats are altered and vaccinated, which will ultimately reduce the number of community cats in the area.
Information provided by Contra Costa Animal Services
6 comments
Great idea! This will work! Now, maybe if some organization were to be formed which would trap the homeless, look after their health, then return them to the states from which they have been sent here via that “Bus Therapy” system.
I applaud the people who formed such an organization to help maintain the colonies of abandoned cats. Irresponsible people dump animals everywhere with no regard for their safety. We taught our children to respect these wonderful creatures. Cats are so smart and deserve our support. They cannot just waltz into a grocery store and grab a few cans of food. We are their protectors.
Hi Dawn. Thank you for your reply. I am one of the co-founders of Project Delta View Cats in Pittsburg. We are not only working with cat colony caretakers who feed cats in public places like parks and behind restaurants, around the marina etc, we are also going through five neighborhoods around the marina and River View Park going door to door trying to learn who is feeding and offering to help them trap the cats and get them spayed, neutered and vaccinated then returned back to their caretakers. This way we can track and register where there are stray, abandoned community cats and we can return 2-3 times a year to ask if they have any new cats that require spay, neuter. We believe we can help Pittsburg, our city, become a model for how to humanely manage our over population of community cats. And educating the public and school age children is a big part of what we are starting to do. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, even an occasional one, please contact me at [email protected]
Cats are cool!
“Time spent with a cat is never wasted”
“You never have too many cats”
Colette, the original cat woman
I love the words of Colette. She is the patron saint of cats!
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