Feral Freedom program for feral cats

Over the holiday weekend, I started hearing about a new program based in Jacksonville, FL to help out the feral cat population there. From just the preliminary info I have read so far, it looks like they are giving vaccinations and microchipping in addition to spay/neuter which is great.

The ferals in our program are not microchipped, but do get an FCRVP shot in addition to the spay/neuter surgery.

It is great to hear that communities are starting to address this problem. My experience in this area in southeast Iowa is that volunteers can only do so much. I think our town feels like they don’t have to address the situation since the volunteers are doing such a good job. But after several years, people are burned out and discouraged.

One thing I wonder about the program in Florida is if it encourages people to abandon their unfixed cats, since they know the city will pick them up and fix them.