Feral Colony Management Program

The objective of our Feral Colony Management Program is to create kitten-free zones throughout the Santa Fe County area. These are plots of land where colonies of naturally-occurring feral and stray cats can live out their lives, but no longer reproduce — because a focused colony manager ensures that all of the cats in the colony — as well as any newcomers to the colony — are identified and sterilized. The manager feeds the cats each day at the same time and place so that the cats are conditioned to come at that time and be hungry when they arrive. The manager traps the cats for sterilization during their mealtime. This is the only way to ensure that the entire colony gets sterilized — and thus create a kitten-free zone.

Program

Our Program will provide up to 20 free cat spay/neuter vouchers to colony managers who will adhere to this feeding and trapping practice. The vouchers cover the total cost to get the cats sterilized and vaccinated for rabies at one of our participating veterinary clinics. While the cats are under anesthesia they will have their left ear tipped to identify them as sterilized and vaccinated colony cats. Colony sterilization should take no more than 45-60 days (depending on colony size). If not completed within the alloted time, the vouchers expire and no more vouchers will be issued.

Note: Our Lower-Income Cat Spay/Neuter Program should be used for small colonies of 6 or fewer cats.

Eligibility

Submit an application only if you meet all of the following requirements:

You have read our Colony Management Handbook and agree to manage the colony in accordance with its guidelines.
You agree to live trap and deliver ALL cats over 12 weeks old in your colony to the authorized veterinary clinic within the alloted time period.
You (and the cat colony) live in or near Santa Fe County.
You reside or own and operate a business on the property that the cats live on and are either the owner of the property or have the owner's permission to manage the cats living there.
You are the primary caregiver of the cat colony — and agree to remain their primary caregiver after the cats are sterilized.
You are at least 18 years old.
The cats in the colony are over 12 weeks old.

Application Procedure

The application is provided in PDF-format, which can be viewed with most modern browsers or with Adobe reader. If the form doesn't display when you click on it, you may need to download or update the free Adobe Reader from here.

Simply complete the Application and submit it to us with:

0ne or two photos of your cats eating at their feeding station.
0ne or two photos of your cats' dry shelter.

Application Timetable

When you mail your application to us, allow 3-5 working days for us to process your request. If we approve your application, your vouchers will be mailed to you at that time. If you don't hear from us within 10 days of when you mail the application, call us at 505-466-1676 to find out what happened.

Re-application

If you've previously had less than 20 cats fixed through our program and have abided by our program requirements, you may apply for additional vouchers for any newcomers to your colony — provided you do so within 30 days of when they first appear.

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