Mission, Vision & History

Mission

To reduce the overpopulation of cats in the San Antonio area through public education, Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), rescue, and empowering the community to care for outside cats.

Mission Statement

The San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization dedicated to humanely reducing the outside cat population in the San Antonio area through Trap-Neuter-Return. We provide free classes on how to trap cats, loan traps to those trained, and subsidize spay/neuter surgeries, making the cost affordable for the public. Young kittens and friendly strays are rescued from the streets and placed for adoption. Advocacy efforts promote community awareness to protect the lives of outdoor cats.

Vision

Our vision is to live in a community where no kittens are born wild on the street, where no cat capable of living in a home is lacking one, and where no outside cats go wanting for food, water, shelter, and appropriate care.

History

In the spring of 2004 a small group of people met in the Whole Foods break room and discussed the plight of outside cats in San Antonio. From that meeting, the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition was born and became a non-profit corporation in September of that same year. On National Feral Cat Day, October 16th, 2004, SAFCC started its outreach campaign to educate the public about Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). In September the following year, SAFCC received their tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3). In the spring of 2005, SAFCC trapped 22 cats in a condemned trailer park in southeast SA. That summer, SAFCC sent 9 cats a week to the Gladys Harborth Animal Resource Center (GHARC) for spay/neuter. By the end of 2005, GHARC had increased SAFCC’s appointments to 30 per week. In January 2006, SAFCC held its first monthly workshop to teach TNR and trained 220 people that year. In June 2006, SAFCC became a PetSmart adoption partner. In December 2006, SAFCC entered into an agreement with Animal Care Services and Purrfect Haven to do a pilot TNR Program of park cats at the Japanese Tea Garden which included the cats at Brackenridge Park that were TNR’ed. Since those early days SAFCC has trained and TNR’ed thousands and has become the main voice and advocate for San Antonio’s community cats.