City’s animal commission OKs cat educator

The Animal Advisory Commission unanimously approved a motion for a second permanent position for community cat public health educator last Monday.

The Community Cats program in Austin helps the thousands of free-roaming cats in the city remain healthy and safe in their natural homes – whether that is outdoors or in a house. The program provides resources like free spay/neuter services and non-urgent medical care, and relies on volunteers and other members of the community to keep neighboring cats and kittens from danger and disease.

Although the Community Cats program currently employs a full-time public health educator, there is enough demand for a second one.

“Based on the lack of spay/neuter and increase of kittens in the community, we had to hire a temp to augment that position,” said Don Bland, chief animal services officer at Austin Animal Services. “And now we are advocating to make that a full-time permanent position as well.”

The temporary position was added in 2022, and Amanda Bruce, medical director of Animal Balance, described the role as slightly different from the permanent educator but with the same overarching goal. 

“While the in-shelter permanent position is responsible for the 30,000-foot view of Community Cats and getting the animals through Austin Animal Center,” Bruce said, “the temporary position that was introduced in 2022 is really what I would consider the boots on the ground.”

She described the new position as focusing on returning phone calls, responsibility to community members and dedicating their time to the “access of care” element of Community Cats, rather than working the traditional hours of shelter workers.

Bruce also mentioned that the findings of the Spay/Neuter Working Group also pointed to the need for a collaborative position for someone who could connect the various agencies and nonprofit organizations offering community cat resources. 

“I think this position has great potential to be filled by someone with a really specialized focus on our cats and keeping them out of the shelter long term,” Bruce said, “which is the primary focus of this program.”

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