'Catadelphia' Asking For Your Help Trapping, Spaying And Neutering Philadelphia's Overwhelming Stray Cat Population
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Parts of Philadelphia are infested with stray casts. In some neighborhoods, you can't walk around without seeing one.
Those who care for felines are turning to the community to help solve a community problem.
There is a massive stray cat population in Philly and one good thing about that is it helps with the city's rodent control. But with that population continuing to grow, certain groups are working together to slow it down.
"Some of these animals are not animals that are meant to be in homes, some are truly feral, which means wild," said Susan Russell, of the Animal Care and Control Team.
With nearly 400,000 stray cats roaming the streets of Philadelphia, there are multiple groups working together to focus on cat population control. Aine Doley is the founder of Catadelphia and she's hoping to have more people join her in her cause.
"It's not really hard, there are a lot of moving parts and that's where we fit in with Catadelphia," Doley said.
It's called Trap, Neuter, Return -- or TNR for short. Catadelphia volunteers trap the city's stray cats, where they are then spayed or neutered by an Animal Care and Control Team of Philadelphia, and released back into Philly.
"There's no way there's manpower in the city of Philadelphia to handle fixing all of those cats," Doley said.
And that's why they're hoping you can help trap cats, as well. They'll even lend you the trap.
"Once you borrow a trap from us, it's pretty simple -- you just log online, and reserve your trap. Pick it up in Germantown. We show you how to use it," Doley said.
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The cats are also being vaccinated and treated for other sicknesses. But Catadelphia and ACCT Philly can't do it alone. That's why they're hoping you can lend a helping hand.
"There's just not enough trappers, I mean, there's never enough manpower, so if we all take on a little bit of that responsibility, we can help even more cats," Russell said.
If you are not willing to help trap cats but still want to help in the form of cash, you can donate here.
