Video Length: 49:57
Is FeLV still a reason cats are not being adopted out in your community? Are you unsure what a FeLV diagnosis means? Are FeLV cats being killed in your shelter or rescue? Come learn from shelter medicine expert, Dr. Levy, and leading cat advocates Monica Frenden and Natascha Hamman about the most current research and best practices for rehoming this vulnerable cat population. This presentation was recorded by Maddie's Fund® at the 2019 American Pets Alive! Conference.
Dr. Julie Levy is the Fran Marino Professor of Shelter Medicine Education at the University of Florida, where she focuses on the health and welfare of animals in shelters, feline infectious diseases, and humane alternatives for cat population control, including contraceptive vaccines for cats. Dr. Levy co-founded Maddie's® Shelter Medicine Program at the College of Veterinary Medicine, an educational and discovery initiative with a global impact on the care of homeless animals, Operation Catnip, a nonprofit university-based community cat spay/neuter program that has sterilized more than 50,000 cats in Gainesville, Florida since 1998, and the Million Cat Challenge, a shelter-based campaign to save a million cats in five years. For the past two years, Dr. Levy has collaborated with Austin Pets Alive! to better understand diagnosis, management, and outcomes in FeLV+ shelter cats.
Monica Frenden is the Director of Feline Lifesaving at American Pets Alive! and is an instructor for the American Pets Alive!'s Maddie's® Lifesaving Academy. Before teaching the Austin no-kill Model to students, she founded a trap-neuter-return organization in rural Illinois in 2008 and pioneered one of the nation's first, and largest, barn cat programs. In 2012, she joined Austin Pets Alive! where she served as the Cat Program Manager, led her team to an 88 percent growth in cat adoptions and helped Austin achieve a citywide 98 percent live release rate for cats. Monica is a frequent speaker and advisor on innovative ways to save every cat, including cats with feline leukemia, community cats, and shelter cats in need of medical care.
Natascha Hamman is the feline leukemia and Matchmaker Program manager for Austin Pets Alive!. She has overseen the intake and placement of over 1,000 FeLV cats since 2017. Growing up, she spent a lot of time volunteering in Houston area shelters, which spurred her love of feline welfare. She started working for APA! in 2015 and quickly started the Cat Matchmakers Program that very year. The Cat Matchmakers team exists to assist adopters in finding a cat that is a perfect fit for their household, to increase the number of special needs cats adopted, and to improve customer service. In 2017, she become the feline leukemia research coordinator for a large two year study funded by Maddie's on best testing practices for FeLV in shelters. The study was a partnership between the University of Flora, National Vet Lab, IDEXX, and the University of Glasgow. Natascha continues to be a no-kill advocate with a focus on special needs, FeLV, and cats with other medical or behavioral challenges.