To: The Texas State House, The Texas State Senate, and Governor Greg Abbott

Texas Public health through vaccination not extermination

Leave our community cats alone. Lethal roundups do not protect public health but TNR (trap and release does).

Why is this important?

Late last week, Dr. Beverlee Nix, a veterinarian with the Texas Department of State Health Services, suggested that animal control agencies throughout the state use an agenda-driven article to justify putting an end to managed colonies of community cats.
However, the best way to protect public health is by vaccinating community cats, which is standard practice in the numerous trap/ neuter/return programs in place across the country. Prohibiting managed colonies, on the other hand, undermines such efforts and jeopardizes community health by increasing the number of unsterilized, unvaccinated outdoor cats – thus increasing the risk of rabies transmission. As a Texas resident, I am concerned about the well-being of my fellow community members as well as the manner in which animals are treated. For this reason, I wholeheartedly support the trap/neuter/return (TNR) method of free-roaming cat population management.

Please help to protect community cats and public health though out Texas.