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Malta non-profit on a mission to help local cats

In May of this year, the Malta City Council was tasked with lowering the amount of stray cats around town and after much discussion and several plans, a group of local animal lovers formed the non-profit group "Malta Trap, Neuter Return" (MTNR) to get this problem more manageable.

"Basically, we started our nonprofit to trap neuter release the stray cats in town to cut down the population," said group President Raelynn Jean Robinson. "It is the gold standard in most cities because it works. It is a lengthy process, but in the long run, it significantly decreases the population of stray and feral cats."

Aside from President Robinson, MTNR is comprised of Vanessa Mann, Vice President, Shannan Fried, secretary/treasurer, Kate Cleveland is social media and the donations "go to person" and David Rummel is an all-around helper. Robinson said MTNR has a Facebook page where donations can be made to the non-profit as well as an account at Independence Bank in Malta.

"We are also accepting donations of food, litter, carriers, food dishes, litter boxes, blankets, sheets towels, etc," Robinson said. "Contact Kate to donate items. 301-1611. We're struggling to find a low-cost vet to work with us, but we've found one that will work with us but we will have to pay full price."

She asks that if anyone comes upon a trap, to please leave them be, but notify a member if there is a cat trapped. MTNR will be checking traps frequently and will post pictures of the cats which are trapped, just in case it's someone's pet.

"They can claim them by getting a hold of one of us. We encourage the community to please keep their cats indoors, especially when we are trapping," Robinson said. "We are working out details on an adoption program for the cats deemed tame enough for house pets."

MTNR will have a contract and a fee for anyone wanting to adopt through them and since the organization is brand new, they are just getting started and learning as they go, so they ask for the community to be patient and with time, the number of stray cats will go down. "We also want to thank everyone for their generous donations and encourage to donate anything they can, "Robinson said. "Every little bit helps. I can't think of anything else right now, but those are the basics as of now."

On Sunday, MTNR took six cats to Chinook and they were spayed and or neutered and all were vaccinated.

 

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