(March 29, 2005) 
Neighborhood Cats' second annual National Feral Cat Summit will be held this coming October 15 in Philadelphia, PA.  Building on last year's sold-out inaugural Summit in New York City, this fall's event will feature talks and workshops by experts in the feral cat field and descriptions of successful TNR programs by representatives of feral cat groups from around the country.  Presented by the ASPCA, In Defense of Animals (IDA), the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals and the Alliance for Philadelphia's Animals, the Summit is designed to advance the progressive and humane treatment of feral cats through trap-neuter-return and responsible colony management.  Sponsors include PETsMART Charities, the PETCO Foundation and NUTRO.

The morning session will feature keynote speaker Esther Mechler, the founder and director of SPAY/USA and a pioneer of the modern spay/neuter movement.   Bryan Kortis will then draw from his experience to describe successful strategies for persuading animal control and municipal officials to back TNR programs.  The Regional Report segment, featuring TNR leaders throughout the U.S., will be introduced by Bryan Kortis, executive director of Neighborhood Cats.

Following lunch sponsored by PETsMART Charities, two sessions of afternoon workshops will be held.  In the first session, strategies for building coalitions among animals groups to further TNR will be discussed by Jane Hoffman, President of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, Esther Mechler, and Tara Derby-Perrin, Executive Director of Philadelphia Animal Care & Control.   Valerie Sicignano and Lawrence Carter-Long of In Defense of Animals, together with Community Relations Specialist Craig Fligstein, will speak on creating media and humane education campaigns.  Rounding out the first round of workshops, Meredith Weiss and Emma Cobb of Neighborhood Cats will instruct on how to conduct a mass trapping, defined as the TNR of entire feral cat colonies at once.

The second session of afternoon workshops features PETsMART Charities' Kit Jenkins on TNR grants, Bryan Kortis on how to put together a successful community-wide TNR program and Anitra Frazier (author, "The New Natural Cat") and others on feral cat colony care, including nutrition, shelter and working with neighbors and property owners.

In addition to the speakers and workshops, booths at the Summit will display the latest in TNR educational materials and equipment.  Registration for this important event is only $40 ($50 after September 1.)  To read the complete program and register either online, by phone or by mail, click here.

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