De-Clawing has been banned in San Fran!!!

MSNBC.com
California cities scratch out declawing of cats
‘It's a form of animal cruelty’ says San Francisco supervisor Ross Mirkarimi
PeoplePets.com
updated 10:34 a.m. MT, Fri., Nov . 20, 2009
Don’t have your cat declawed in San Francisco, or West Hollywood, or you could face fines up to $1,000 and six months in jail. This month, the city by the bay became the first major metro area in California to outlaw the veterinary procedure, and was soon joined by Santa Monica, Berkeley and Beverly Hills. Los Angeles is expected to enact the ban next week.
"It’s a form of animal cruelty," San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, a major supporter of the ban, tells PEOPLEPets.com. "It would be unconscionable to ignore that fact."
The San Francisco board of supervisors voted 9-2 to enact the ban, which would prohibit anyone in the city from declawing cats and penalize consenting pet owners. "It’s a form of amputation and would render the cat defenseless if it were attacked," says Mirkarimi, who has owned rescue animals in the past.
Instead, anti-declawing advocates encourage owners to provide scratching posts as an alternative to declawing their cats to protect their furniture or have a professional groomer dull the claws. West Hollywood has had a declawing ban on its books since 2003. The practice is banned in a slew of other countries, including the U.K. and Australia.
The recent flurry of local ordinances have been opposed by the California Veterinary Medical Association, which argues that pet owners and their vets should determine declawing.
"Veterinarians must be allowed to make qualified medical decisions in consultation with their clients and upon a proper exam and understanding of the pet’s home environment," the association said in a statement. "This is the only way to provide the best course of treatment and assist the owner in making the best decision for their family pet. That may include removing a cat’s claws in a humane manner with proper pain management to prevent that animal from being abandoned at a shelter, tossed out on the street or euthanized."
One of the dissenting Bay Area supervisors, Michela Alto-Pier, told the San Francisco Examiner that the board was overreaching its charge and should stray from such medical decisions.
But Mirkarimi says the law does have a medical necessity clause to protect the cat, adding that the California state legislature forced municipalities to act after the state passed a new statute to restrict cities from regulating veterinary medicine and medical procedures after Jan. 1, 2010. "They hijacked our authority and forced our hand," he says.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34063281/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/

Discgivings Success

The Discgivings Fundraiser that occurred on Saturday, Nov. 7th was a HUGE success.

Disc Golfers came out for a day of fun that ended up generating almost $4000 in donations for Fort Collins Cat Rescue & Animal House! It was absolutely incredible!

A huge thank you to Sue Lande for working her tail off, and all of the sponsors of the event!

FCCR got new kitten cages thanks to the Linnea Memorial Fund!!

On Saturday, June 6th of 2009, a Pet Walk and Adopt-a-Thon occurred at Spring Canyon Community Park. It was put on by the Linnea Memorial Fund and was very successful. An incredible amount of money was raised for community shelters and rescues, and Fort Collins Cat rescue was one of the beneficiaries.

The money raised for us was used to purchase a nice bank of cages to display adoptable kittens in our reception area of the shelter. Before we were using wire cages that were hard to clean, difficult to maneuver, and looked ugly. Thanks to Linnea Dick we have saved time, money, and have more comfortable housing for our adoptable kittens. Here is some information from the Linnea Memorial website:

"In May of 2008 Linnea’s life was tragically and unexpectedly taken, but her spirit and passion for animals lives on through the Linnea Memorial Fund that cares for animals in need through donations to local animal charities. Although Linnea lost her life, she will still make her mark on this world. She is helping change the world through the Linnea Memorial Fund by making it a more positive place for animals and people. Linnea will not only be missed by family and friends, but by all of the animals in her short but very significant life. "

FCCR encourages you to visit the Linnea Memorial website to learn more about Linnea and how her memory continues to help animals in distress: http://www.linneamemorial.org/

2 Big THANK YOU'S!!

First to Deb Valdez who works at the Distribution Center for Sam's Club and helped us to receive a $1,000 grant to go towards the replacement of the equipment destroyed in the fire.

Thank you Deb!!!!!!

Second to the Poudre River Public Library District for the $3000 donation!!! We were the group chosen this year for Readers to the Rescue, where kids read a certain number of hours to raise money for the shelter. The kids did an amazing job and were so dedicated. Hearing about their excitement towards helping homeless kitties gives us all the "warm fuzzies"!

Are you ready for.....Meow-loween?!?!?!?!

Fort Collins Cat Rescue is having a FABULOUS Meow-loween party on Friday, Oct. 30th, and you are invited!!!! The party is taking place in the Agave Room at Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant located on Mountain St. in Fort Collins. The party is from 7pm - 11pm.

There will be LIVE MUSIC from Chatoic Serenity (an awesome band - http://www.myspace.com/chaoticserenitygirls), Costume Contests, dancing, a cash bar, door prizes, and more.

Tickets to the event are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Food is included.

You can purchase your tickets online by going to www.blacktie-colorado.com/rsvp and entering event code: FCCR10/30.

This is your chance to party and have a great time while supporting

the Fort Collins Cat Rescue at the same time.

Meow-loween is being sponsored by our friends: Aspen Grove Veterinary Care!

Thank You for the T-Shirts!

We just got a great surprise this morning. Go West T-Shirt Company dropped off some FCCR

t-shirts that they printed for us for FREE!!!!! There are a limited supply, so come and get yours today. They are available for an $8 donation. Above you can see Dr.Gloria modeling the new shirts. Just think, you could look as stylish as her if you come and get an FCCR shirt!

Want to find out more about Go West T-Shirt Company? You can visit their website at: http://www.justgowest.com/

The Calendar is in!!!!

Our wonderful volunteer, Jan T., just dropped off the 2010 FCCR calendars,

and they turned out absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

The cost to own one of these beauties is only $20 -

ALL of which goes towards the homeless kitties in our community.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Nicole Habel of The Image Gallery: imagegalleryinc.com. Nicole is a professional photographer that does beautiful work, and graciously offered to put together the FCCR calendar for the second year in a row.

It took hours of her hard work to create such an impressive product!

We also owe a thanks to Friendship Hospital for Animals who helped to choose

the 12 winners for this year.

An extremely hard task when you have over 70 adorable pictures to choose from!

I also want to mention that earlier this month I lost my 3-year old kitty, Squishy, in a tragic and heart-breaking accident. Quite a while before the accident I had submitted a photo of him for the calendar. His picture was not chosen to represent one of the months, but a picture of Jan's kitty was. When Jan found out about my tragedy, she selflessly had the photo of her kitty, Margo, replaced with the picture of my Squish. I had no idea, and when the calendars arrived today and I turned to September, I burst into tears.

Thanks to my friend, Jan, I get to share Squishy's memory with anyone

that purchases one of our calendars.

I am deeply grateful.

There are only 100 calendars available for purchase, so get yours while they last!!