Kris Kelly

Interview with Kris Kelly for the documentary Cats of the Urban Jungle at The Kris Kelly Foundation website.

Feral mom with her kittens

Animal Rescue and Support

Toni's Kitten Rescue (at San Francisco Animal Care & Control)

"Kitten Season" usually runs from May through October, but last year, San Francisco Animal Care and Control, who has a highly successful an model program rescuing and socializing feral kittens, rescued feral kittens throughout the year. Unaltered female cats throughout San Francisco give birth birth to litters of kittens, in parks, abandoned lots, residential back yards. Many of these kittens, both the "bottle-feeders" who are trapped with their mothers as well as without their mothers, along with older kittens who have been weaned, usually end up at Animal Care & Control, abandoned, orphaned and sometimes ill or injured. The Animal Care & Control Kitten Foster Parents of Toni's Kitty Rescue care for these kittens, in their homes, until they reach an adoptable age and weight. During 2008 Toni's Kitty Rescue* successfully raised and adopted out over 900 kittens! Can you help? Come visit our "Animals in Foster Care" now! 

• Toni Sestak is the Director of Toni's Kitty Rescue and I am indebted to her for making it possible to include San Francisco's Animal Care and Control in the documentary on homeless and feral cats.

Kris Kelly Foundation

9903 Santa Monica Blvd. #474
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

310.989.8800

This Kris Kelly Foundation was founded by Kris Kelly after many years of dreaming of her own Non-Profit to save animals from abuse, slaughter, and neglect. The Foundation is taking an approach to not only work for animals but work for people also.

When Kris Kelly was in 5th grade she read a book for a book report about an old lady and and an old horse. They were friends and spent a lot of time together. Kris remembers her teacher asking her over and over "Why do you think they are such good friends"....as Kris was talking her teacher kept saying "Keep talking...keep talking". Kris finally said "Because they are BOTH lonely and need each other". The teacher gave her a big smile and then an A on her oral book report.

That scene has run through Kris's mind over the years. She didn't know what would come of this memory that she couldn't shake. As she grew older she developed a yearning to have the elderly, animals, and children work together.

The Kris Kelly Foundation is an animal rescue organization that embraces the elderly and children (that includes teenagers).

People have to understand that they have to live with the animals and animals NEED people. We all need each other. We are all one and together we can all help the ones in need heal.

There are a lot of lonely souls that are in need of healing and The Kris Kelly Foundation is here to find those souls and then heal them. Souls come in all ages, sizes, skin colors, fur, skin, and races. We embrace everyone. Whatever costume you wear on your jouney in this  life underneath the costume is a  being that is full of love. We at The Kris Kelly Foundation embrace "Humanity" and we give dignity and a voice to the animals that need someone to do it for them.

* Many, many thanks and gratitude to Kris and her fabulous friends, their generosity of hearts and minds. I couldn't have come this far without them!

Feral Cat Caretakers Coalition (FCCC)

The Feral Cat Caretakers Coalition was formed when it’s founder, Dona Cosgrove Baker, a caretaker herself, was profoundly moved by the suffering of feral cats and kittens. She was called to the often times overwhelming responsibility and commitment required to care for a large number of feral cats, scattered over several acres in an industrial area in Los Angeles, California. While caretaking, she experienced an unconscionable lack of support and understanding from the community, and on numerous occasions, overt hostility. She knew that feral cat caretakers were great in number and were caring for feral cats and kittens under similar or worse circumstances. Dona recognized that if feral cat caretakers were organized as well as effectively directed and collectively supported, they would be a forceful instrument in providing a specialized solution for humane feral cat population control and responsible long-term care.

By joining together with FCCC, the caretakers could then become a unified force and voice for the compassionate care of feral cats. Experience taught her that trapping cats was only the beginning of a lifetime commitment once the cats were returned to the original home site. She realized that it would be the responsibility of the feral cat caretaker to provide care for cats that may live 10-12 years.  The significance of the quality of care provided to the cats upon return, is the main focus and mission of FCCC.

Fix Nation

Fix Nation

As American society has grown and evolved, we have witnessed a collective failure to manage the number of companion animals in our midst. Borne of neglect, ignorance and indifference, this failure has produced millions upon millions of cats forced to live on the streets, and the advent of animal shelters that no longer serve primarily as way stations on the road to recovery or adoption, but instead virtual concentration camps, with too few survivors…

Abandonment and “surrender” of companion animals are the primary factors in creating homeless cat populations. FixNation, believing that all cats deserve a safe and caring home, thus supports as much as possible initiatives to increase public awareness, educate citizens about humane issues, encourage spay-neuter and home retention, and promote adoption. In furtherance of this, we devote a portion of our clinic resources to the sterilization of tame cats for low-income individuals and families.

However, there already exists in the Los Angeles area a very large population of homeless, stray and feral cats. Given their strong survival capabilities and prolific breeding, if nothing is done, this population will simply continue to grow. Unrestrained expansion will only lead to more and more cats living in unmanaged colonies, decreased public tolerance of homeless cats and increased pressure on the environment, animal control agencies and our society as a whole.

The usual approach to controlling free-roaming cats is repeated extermination attempts. Long-term studies have demonstrated the futility of such a strategy, since other cats simply move in and replace the killed animals beginning the cycle of reproduction again. On the other hand, trap-neuter-return programs are a very successful method of decreasing stray cat populations. These programs succeed at the least cost to the public and provide the best possible life for the cats themselves. Therefore, FixNation devotes most of its resources, both personnel and material, toward decreasing the number of unowned cats though free sterilization services at our clinic, and massive TNR support.

Our primary mission is to reduce the population of homeless cats by sterilizing as many as possible. In addition, by consistently demonstrating the effectiveness of trap-neuter-return, we seek to bring about changes in public policy so that TNR universally becomes the officially sanctioned and government-funded approach to homeless cat management. Lastly, we support and promote all humane initiatives to bring about the Day of No More Homeless Cats in L.A.