The Midway Point Cat Management Project focused on working with the local community to promote and improve ways to keep cats safe, healthy and happy, while protecting wildlife in the ecologically sensitive Pitt Water Orielton Lagoon Ramsar site.
Ten Lives takes a holistic approach to cat management, an approach we have developed through our work on key projects such as Bruny Island and Richmond. The approach starts with community consultation and gathering data on the extent of the challenge. From this, strategies are put in place to address the issues for the area. This is backed up with education in the community and our education program, Edu.Cat, in the schools.
A key initiative identified through the Midway Point public survey was the need for a cat desexing project.
The desexing program has been a great success with over 60 families already assisted with free desexing of their cats. We have been very pleased with the results of this work as we have really engaged and managed to help people who are genuinely concerned for their cats and their community. The people have been very deserving and appreciative of being able to get this help.
We really appreciate the support of the Hobart Community Vet Hospital who allowed our vet teams to work in their surgeries. We needed to work there so that we met some compliance issues. We will resolve these matters soon so watch this space for more exciting announcements from Ten Lives! But a big thank you to the Hobart Community Vet Hospital for their help to get this project happening.
For such a successful project it was pleasing to see that Sorell Council received the Showcasing Innovation Award at the Local Government Association annual dinner for their collaboration with Ten Lives and TassieCat. It was great that our President, Paula Wriedt, was in attendance to participate in the presentation.
A number of Councils are considering options for cat management activities in their areas, and we are sure the success of the Midway Point project will be part of their considerations.