Cat Person of the Month: Bryan Kortis, Esq.

Mewla — Sat, 25 Feb 2023 20:03:45 +0000

Neighborhood Cats is a national community cat rescue group originally founded in New York City. The group has worked for years helping street cats and has developed many of what are now common practices in the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) field. They also developed the TNR of entire colonies at once (“mass trapping”) and focused on trapping and spaying/neutering resources in high-need areas (“targeting.”)

Beyond originating many TNR practices used today, Neighborhood Cats codesigned and helped make available the first commercially available drop trap as well as the new Neighborhood Cats Gravity Trap. Additionally, the organization built and made available a free online colony database for TNR programs, called Cat Stats.

Our Cat Person of the Month for March is Neighborhood Cats co-founder and long-time member, Bryan Kortis. Esq. Bryan serves as National Programs Director for Neighborhood Cats. He is also co-author, along with community cat experts Susan Richmond, Karen Little, and Danielle Bays, of “The Return to Field Handbook” (The Humane Society of the United States, 2019).

The Return to Field Handbook is a valuable how-to for RTF programs that describes everything from gathering information, assessing eligibility and housing to program staffing, veterinary care, and returning a cat to the community. You can access the handbook for free on the Humane Society of the United States webpage, and hard copies are available for purchase.

Mewla: Bryan, we are thrilled to speak with you here on our website! Tell us, how did your work with Neighborhood Cats get started?

Bryan: I started working with feral cats, who are now included in the term “community cats,” in the same way so many of us have. I was walking by an empty lot near where I lived, which back then was the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and saw a few kittens playing in the grass. When I looked into it further, I found about 30 cats living in the inner courtyards of that block.

None were fixed and the number of cats had reached a crisis level with lots of neighbor complaints. I could have kept walking, but I felt I needed to help them – it’s that tug of compassion when unexpectedly confronted with street cats In need that draws people into working with them. At the time, there were very few services for feral cats, nothing on an organized scale, and I’d never heard of TNR before. One thing led to another – myself and a couple of neighbors got the cats fixed, then worked with residents on the next block over, then in the local park, and it kept going like that until we formed Neighborhood Cats and expanded throughout NYC.

Mewla: How great that the community came together to help cats! I often encounter people who don’t understand that pet and community cats need to be neutered, and so we cat advocates have much work to do. When you speak to someone who has unneutered cats, what message(s) seem to help convince them to have them neutered?

Bryan: It’s a bit different with TNR because most of the time we’re working with the people who feed and care for the cats. In my experience, the vast majority of them want their cats neutered, especially if they’ve seen how quickly their numbers can grow.

The problems they encounter have more to do with how to catch them and where to access affordable spay/neuter. That’s why at Neighborhood Cats we place a lot of emphasis on training – we now offer a once-a-month online basic TNR training workshop in partnership with the Community Cats Podcast which anyone is welcome to register for.

But when we do have to persuade someone to fix their cats, we talk about the benefits to their health, their safety from not having neighbors angry about nuisance behavior typical of unneutered cats, and the feeder’s own well-being, knowing they won’t be overwhelmed by endless litters of kittens.

Mewla: Your monthly online workshops are outstanding, and we make sure to announce your upcoming trainings on this website. The Return to Field Handbook, which you co-authored, is another great resource and is available for free.

How is Return-to-Field different than TNR?

Bryan: I think it’s easiest to think of Return to Field as a kind of TNR. After all, the cats are being trapped, neutered, and returned to their home territory. The key differences between RTF and your typical TNR project are who is doing the trapping and who is deciding on the cats’ outcome.

With RTF, the cats are trapped by someone who does not want them around anymore and brings them to a shelter. The decision to neuter and return them is then made by the shelter where they’re surrendered. Compare that to the usual TNR situation where those doing the trapping want the cats to remain and they’re the ones who decide to neuter and return.

Mewla: You’ve mentioned that some shelters use a “one-size-fits-all” approach to dealing with community cats. We appreciate your great work advocating for the need to consider each cat’s unique circumstances when determining the best course of action for a cat.

I can imagine that age, health, and conditions in the cat’s environment should be considered. What other factors should shelters take into account?

Bryan: Your question relates to what cats in a Return-to-Field program should be released back into their home territories. As you mention, the cat’s circumstances should always be considered, including age, health, and environment.

Another factor to look at is how the cat came to be trapped and surrendered. This can provide clues as to whether the cat belongs outside or not. For example, if a cat appears on someone’s porch who has never been seen in the neighborhood before and then stays there, not moving about hardly at all for days, there’s a good chance that the cat is lost or abandoned.

On the other hand, if a cat has been observed in the area for months and comes and goes regularly, maybe stopping by for a meal, that cat probably is a community cat. This is why it’s so important for shelters to gather as much information as possible at the time of intake from the person bringing the cat in.

Also, the shelter’s circumstances need to be weighed in deciding the outcome – is there cage space? Are adoptions happening? Would adding more cats to the shelter population create a health risk for all the housed cats? If the shelter can’t handle more cats, that would weigh in favor of returning them back to their territories, assuming they came in healthy.

Mewla: What is one strategy (or some strategies) that you find particularly helpful when speaking to skeptical humans about the needs of feral and stray cats in their neighborhoods?

Bryan: I find most people who are not involved in the animal welfare field are most concerned about the problems ferals and strays may be causing in their neighborhood. Such as yowling in the middle of the night, catfights, noxious odors from unneutered males marking territory, dead kittens lying around, those sorts of issues. Explaining how getting the cats fixed will solve most of those problems is often persuasive. Plus how keeping fixed cats in place will help keep new unaltered cats from moving in and starting everything all over again.

Sometimes though, the issue has more to do with the feeder and piles of food attracting rodents or wildlife. In those and similar cases, caretaker education will be an important part of the solution.

Mewla: Compelling arguments, Bryan. Thank you! I hope informal caretakers among us will read your message, take advantage of the free resources on Neighborhood Cats’ website, and download the Neighborhood Cats TNR Handbook.

Now for a favorite question. When did you first fall in love with cats, and what was it that made you fall in love with them?

Bryan: I grew up with cats in our household and during an especially tough time – I endured a lot of physical and emotional abuse as a child – one of our cats, a big boy named Spot, befriended me and would come and spend hours hanging out when otherwise I would have been totally alone.

Also, I’m vegan and love all animals but have always had a special connection with cats, being able to see and understand what they’re feeling and experiencing, is just a kind of second nature.

Mewla: Not just anyone can communicate with cats. It takes a special person. And I’m glad that your cat Spot was there to bring you solace during childhood in return. Cats have truly been angel companions in the lives of so many people, comforting young and old alike. Who are the angels in your life today?

Bryan: Well, there are literally millions now that we work with emerging programs overseas as well as in the U.S. There is one special girl who recently came into our lives, though the last thing my wife, Suzi Richmond (Executive Director of Neighborhood Cats) and I wanted was to adopt another cat.

We were driving down a busy road here on Maui and saw a small black and white kitten trotting along behind a man’s heels on the sidewalk. At first, we thought the guy must have trained her but it looked odd. We pulled into the right lane and asked him if this was his cat. He said no. I put on the blinkers and my wife hopped out of the car and crouched in front of the kitten. The kitten thought about it for a moment then came to Suzi.

She was emaciated and covered with tar but otherwise ok. Anyway, she’s won us over and now we’re smitten. Lavinia is incredibly bright and the first cat I’ve known who plays fetch and loves it. I think the lesson here, if you’re a cat person, is stay home!

Mewla: LOL. Your work helping community cats is very inspiring, Bryan. Thank you for visiting with us today. We appreciate all you and your colleagues at Neighborhood Cats do to help cats.

Make sure you visit Neighborhood Cats at www.neighborhoodcats.org
To learn more or get your copy of The Neighborhood Cats TNR Handbook, visit theNeighborhood Cats website’s resource section.
You can also get a copy of the Return-to-Field Handbook, as well as more information on TNR and RTF at theHumane Society of the United States website.

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Cat Person of the Month: Bryan Kortis, Esq.