Animal Shelter spays cats to control population

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - The Big Sky Ranch Animal Shelter, based in Folsom, Louisiana, stopped by the LSU Vet Center on Sunday to spay and neuter 37 cats.

Those cats are either stray, or the owners cannot afford the surgery. The group says this is important to help control the population and reduce the number of cats that have to be euthanized.

"Instead of working reactively to try and just adopt animals, which, we'll never adopt all the animals if we don't act proactively and control the populations," said Dr. Catherine Wilbert, the founder of Big Sky Ranch.

The cats come from several different parishes, including Livingston and Saint Tammany.

Wilbert says they took in a lot of cats following the 2016 flood and that has led to more strays, meaning they've been actively pursuing surgeries.

In 2017 alone, they spayed and neutered 1,000 animals. Wilbert says cats are the most euthanized animal in the country because they re-populate quickly.

"Spay-neuter is truly the only way we're going to get to a no-kill community," Wilbert said. "Cats make up the largest number of animals that are killed in shelters."

Big Sky Ranch takes care of all animals but is especially focused on cats because of the population problems.

An organization within the ranch is called the Care, Advocacy, and Treatment of Neglected and Indigent Pets, or C.A.T.N.I.P. Foundation.