Rescue turns shelter cats into working barn animals
Jennifer Cabral and Deb Mathews founded a Tennessee rescue that rehomes shelter cats as working barn animals instead of euthanizing them.
The team helped adopt six hundred and thirty-four cats to local farmers since starting their organization in the year two thousand and fifteen. They work closely with the Cumberland County animal shelter director Andrea Henshaw to find safe homes for these animals.
Cats considered unadoptable for domestic houses are placed in barns where they help reduce rodent populations on the land. Some antisocial animals eventually become pet-able after settling into their new rural placements with the farmers.
Rescue workers photograph each animal to understand its personality before posting listings on Facebook and PetFinder for potential adopters. Barn owners receive lists of available cats that match their specific needs regarding how social the animal should be.
Research from December two thousand and seventeen to May two thousand and eighteen showed cats act as a deterrent to rats. The study recorded over three hundred and six videos during seventy-nine days while tracking a rat colony and five feral cats.
“Our program has ended euthanasia for feral and semi-feral cats at our local shelter entirely”