Adopt a Shelter Pet Account Community Cats

The bill establishes a grant program to distribute money to encourage a pet animal facility, a pet animal rescue, and a spay and neuter organization located in Colorado (animal welfare facility) to trap, neuter, and return to its habitat a free-roaming domestic cat that may have a caretaker and is not socialized to humans (community cat). The adopt a shelter pet account in the pet overpopulation fund (account) provides the funding for the grant program. The Colorado pet overpopulation authority (authority) will award the grants pursuant to the direction of the authority's board of directors (board).

A prospective grantee may only apply for a grant biannually and may not receive money in consecutive years. The authority must not favor a particular animal welfare facility's business model over another when awarding grants. A pet animal facility must be licensed and in good standing with the department of agriculture and located in Colorado to be eligible for a grant. At least 20% of the money annually awarded for all grants from the account must be for trap-neuter-return program grants. A trap-neuter-return grantee may spend grant money only on:

• Trapping, sterilizing, vaccinating, and ear-tipping community cats in Colorado;
• Veterinary care for the treatment and sterilization of community cats in Colorado;
• Education and outreach to promote public awareness of trap-neuter-return programs in Colorado and to encourage community participation;
• Training for community cat caretakers and animal control personnel in humane trapping and trap-neuter-return protocols in Colorado; and
• For an animal welfare facility that is a spay and neuter organization, veterinary materials and support for mobile clinics in Colorado.

The bill changes the composition of the board and the qualifications required to be on the board. The board member who represents the general public must not also be on the board of any animal welfare organization, and no board member may be from the same trade or industry group as another board member. The bill adds to the board a representative of No Kill Colorado or any successor organization and a representative of a spay and neuter organization.

The board must annually publish on the pet overpopulation fund website the name of each grantee receiving money from the pet overpopulation fund, the amount of each grant provided to a grantee, when a grantee received a grant, and the names of each board member.

The bill specifies that 70% of all grants awarded money from the pet overpopulation fund must be used for animal welfare facilities that are headquartered and located in a Colorado county with a population of 200,000 or less.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)