The 12,000 feral CAts of ZIP Code 90037
The 60,000 human residents of ZIP Code 90037 in South Los Angeles outnumber the feral cats by only 5-to-1. The mild weather of L.A. means that the cats breed frequently. Many of the human residents of the low-income neighborhood lack the financial means to seek veterinary care to neuter their animals. City officials say that the budget of the Animal Services Department is too stretched to trap any cats, and the department euthanizes cats that are brought to city shelters by residents.
Into this grim reality steps the nonprofit Stray Cat Alliance, which hopes to decrease the number of cats that are killed and more ambitiously, hopes to trap and neuter at least 7,000 cats within the 2-square mile area, with funding from a private company!
Last Saturday, the group had a rally called, “I Spayed L.A.”
The strategy of the Stray Cat Alliance is simple: trap a cat, neuter it, and return the animal to the spot where it was trapped. Metropole says that the method results in zero population growth, with the population eventually declining through natural attrition. The remaining cats will live healthier lives, and, since they have been neutered, will FIGHT LESS!
Which means that the human residents will SLEEP MORE! (… and better, too!) 
Directly west of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is the home of Carol Brookshire, who volunteered her home to be the “trap depot” of the ZIP Code. When she moved to the area, six years ago, her backyard was overrun by cats and kittens, some diseased. Now they are all neutered.
Brookshire demonstrates steel crate traps in her garage and recommends baits with strong scents like sardines and rotisserie chicken!
The nearby Animal Rescue Center, a nonprofit animal hospital, neuters the trapped animals and returns them within a couple of days. In addition, the animal hospital offers low-cost medical services for pets of residents and for partnering rescue groups, even putting up suitable animals for adoption.
The size of the task ahead does not intimidate Metropole in the least.
Her goal:
“We just want to be able to move on to the next ZIP Code,” she said.
-Bill at
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