Cats Protection

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cats Protection, formerly The Cats Protection League, is a UK charity dedicated to rescuing and rehoming stray or homeless cats.

The organisation was founded as The Cats Protection League on May 16, 1927 at a meeting at Caxton Hall in London. The name was shortened in 1998. As of 2005, there were 29 shelters and 260 voluntary run branches, located throughout the UK. Alongside rehoming cats and kittens, the charity runs a neutering scheme for owners on a limited income, and a national helpline. In addition, they monitor (and feed) feral colonies in the area including trapping, neutering and re-releasing (where possible) feral cats back to where they came from.

The society operates in 2 ways: volunteer run branches and shelter branches. The main difference is that volunteer run branches are people with a spare room or space in a garden for a pen (or two). Instead of visiting a dedicated shelter, the person wishing to adopt a cat usually visits it in another's persons home. These do receive a small amount of funding from the charity's headquarters, and do not have any paid members of staff.

Shelter branches have a dedicated shelter (of varying size), and paid staff in addition to volunteers on their team. The vast majority of the public visit these places to adopt a cat or a kitten, and rarely set foot in another person's home. In addition to the shelter, there are many fosterers of cats and kittens in the branches' team, who work around the clock to take care of a cat and get them to a state where it is suitable for rehoming. Once a cat is deemed suitable for rehoming, it is moved to the shelter. During the busy kitten season, then very often a person wishing to have a kitten visits the fosterer's home to see (and possibly reserve) a kitten. It must be noted that anyone picking up a kitten from a fosterer's home is still subject to the same home checks (pre and post homing) and the same terms and conditions as someone picking up a cat/kitten from the shelter. Unlike volunteer run branches, these do not receive any money from the charity's headquarters; any donations intended for helping cat in that area must be made directly to that particular shelter. A branch shelter is entirely self funding. In addition there is the chance of pen sponsorship; many shelters offer the chance for someone (for a monthly) fee to get their name on a plaque attached to the pen. Most pen sponsorships are done by individuals, although in some cases companies may sponsor a pen. As well as a plaque, the person sponsoring it gets a regular update.