A good charity for pro-animal people esp. cat lovers.

[alkemyst]

The website is terribly out of date, I plan to donate time to them to fix this.

Anyway I had posted about Chipper a few months ago, the cat that was rescued from being put through a wood chipper. Sadly he died, but this organization stepped up and sought care for it.

I just took a tour of their facilities today out in Clewiston, FL. It's bare bones, but that's what you do when you are housing 1000+ cats. This group takes on any type of feline: Feral, FeLV+, blind, deaf, broken...etc. They keep them forever, spay/neuter and microchip them should they ever get loose somehow.

Operating costs about 2 years ago for 400 cats were around $12,000 per month, they would have liked $25,000 per month for little extras. With 1000+ cats...I imagine $25k is about what it takes to run things at minimum now. Their property is a donation, so that operating cost is mostly for the animals.

They house the animals in about fifteen, 4000 sq foot 'habitats'. Each habitat has a fraction of the cats. The habitat consists of a large wood 'pen' that can be closed in bad weather. Inside the 'pen' are heat lamps that can raise the temperature in even the coldest Florida weathers to a cat comfortable temp. The pen is lined with shelves so each cat has a spot to sleep. The outside of the pen is enclosed in a huge patio of chickenwire, more shelves and small roof structures to get out of the elements, but still stay outside. They have food stations, water, and several litter boxes. I will admit to most people the boxes may look a bit full (we had gotten there prior to cleaning the day before, they clean all the boxes every 24 hours. Cleaning the boxes is a full day project...it was not that bad...I have seen bad cat owner's letting their own INDOOR boxes get worse.

Some are quarantine for those with fatal diseases...an interesting note is most of their AIDS/Leukemia+ cats live pretty healthly for normal cat lifes. Some do die due to the disease advancing, but many never show signs; yet veternarians usually recommend euthanasia for this condition at it's onset. They put these animals all in a few of their own habitats so they can enjoy community life. There are a few quarantine areas that only house one or usually two cats will severe defects that would make it unsafe for the cat to be put into a 'general' population. There was a pair of deaf/blind ones that were pretty much buddies even though neigher even heard or saw the other.

Most of the animals are very people friendly...you basically get mobbed by them wanting attention. There are some that just fear people and want nothing to do with them...but they have 'cat' friends. You can definitely witness who is friends with who. There surprisingly was no fighting. I saw one cat swat at another who was hogging attention, but it was not a fight at all.

No animals are available for adoption from this group. They keep them all. As a pet owner that cannot care for their pet they have 'life-time adoption' services. For $400 you can turn your pet over to them for life time care. If they are already spayed/neutered it's $300. If they have Leuk/AIDS or are kitties under 3 months it's free.

The website is an interesting read. They don't have Paypal, but I will be talking to the director about adding some things that could help him get more funds coming in.

If anyone would like to donate, The "10th Life" Sanctuary is a "no-kill" 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charity dedicated to providing lifetime care to sick, unwanted, and feral cats:

I believe that qualifies it as a tax deductable donation...so if anyone out there wants to burn of a tax burden for a good cause .

They are hoping to expand this to helping dogs as well, but dogs are considerably more expensive to feed and house.

Corporate Office:
The ?10th Life? Sanctuary, Inc.
P.O. Box 970456
Boca Raton, FL. 33497

If anyone wanted to paypal me, I will donate 100% and even cover the paypal fees to make your donation what you sent. alkemyst@30moons.com is my paypal. I have an excellent trading reputation on both here, heatware and ebay.

I am not affiliated with this organization other than donating my own time and money to it.

Anyway if you care, please try to help...if you can get the word out feel free.

Å

 

[DrPizza]

Sounds like a great cause.

I'm curious though, when in the last thousand years has the temperature in Florida gotten so low that cats need a heat lamp to be comfortable?? There are a lot of cats.

Also, their monthly costs seem pretty high to me... But, that's just me, someone who raises 50 or so animals for under $500 a month, including veterinary care. I can't imagine that a cat would eat more than 7 or 8 dollars worth of food in a month (especially if the food is purchased in bulk, rather than at a grocery store.)

edit: Still sounds like a great cause

 

[KarenMarie]

That does sound like a good cause.

I love when ppl do stuff like that for animals.

And Dr. Pizza, I only have 9 rescues at the moment, so do not have huge buying power. They eat a LOT more than $8. per month each. Even buying Wal-Mart's special kitty packet food @ $.027 each and only feeding them it once a day is just about that. Not to mention the dry food and treats and ... well, who needs a special diet for weight or furballs or urinary tract problems... then there is the litter. And flea medication... it gets expensive. With stronger buying power, I am sure it would be less. But Holy Cow! I wish they cost me less than $8. each per month. How do you do it? What kind of animals do you have?

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Sounds like a great cause.

I'm curious though, when in the last thousand years has the temperature in Florida gotten so low that cats need a heat lamp to be comfortable?? There are a lot of cats.

Also, their monthly costs seem pretty high to me... But, that's just me, someone who raises 50 or so animals for under $500 a month, including veterinary care. I can't imagine that a cat would eat more than 7 or 8 dollars worth of food in a month (especially if the food is purchased in bulk, rather than at a grocery store.)

edit: Still sounds like a great cause

They use normal 20lb bags of food...likw I mentioned they are saving animals not the best researchers. They had some science diet products as well for the special animals.

animals are a bit across the board though...I can raise fish or tigers. My cats eat well and I shop around and use coupons. Litter is also a cost in them. I think between those 3 it's not that much, but I am not paying other's to take care of them nor other things.

The 400 cat figure and $12,000 per month works out to a dollar a day. Personally my 3 cats definitely push that up.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
That does sound like a good cause.

I love when ppl do stuff like that for animals.

And Dr. Pizza, I only have 9 rescues at the moment, so do not have huge buying power. They eat a LOT more than $8. per month each. Even buying Wal-Mart's special kitty packet food @ $.027 each and only feeding them it once a day is just about that. Not to mention the dry food and treats and ... well, who needs a special diet for weight or furballs or urinary tract problems... then there is the litter. And flea medication... it gets expensive. With stronger buying power, I am sure it would be less. But Holy Cow! I wish they cost me less than $8. each per month. How do you do it? What kind of animals do you have?

I forgot to mention each cat gets worm and flea meds every month.

Not necessary for indoor animals but these guys live in a pseudo-outdoor/indoor environment.

Also some cats have special needs there. They do not take on any animal that has to have a daily regimine...but they take on about all others.

 

[alkemyst]

bump

 

[Night201]

I took in a stray cat when I moved into my place in August. We already had 1 cat. We've spent about $1000 since then on getting her treatments (she had worms, and ear mites), was sick one day, precautionary measures for my other cat, and just other related stuff. That's a lot of money, but chances are, she would have died this winter in NJ had she been left outside. She is much more comfortable in our house now (no worms, mites, being wet & cold, etc.). She is a great cat. She's only about 1 year old now (she actually had 3-4 babies right before we moved in - they went to a shelter to be adopted) and doing great. She has about 3 more days of treatment for her ears and then she should be all set.