science

Working Cats Program

Working Cats Program is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Working Cats Program rather than just read about it. In short: The Working Cats Program in Los Angeles, California, created by animal activist Melya Kaplan in 1999, is a green program that relocates sterilized and vaccinated feral cats to residences or businesses with large rat populations. The program provides a useful role in society for feral cats, who would otherwise be euthanized in shelters.

Key takeaways

Working Cats Program belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Working Cats Program to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Working Cats Program from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Working Cats Program in Los Angeles, California, created by animal activist Melya Kaplan in 1999, is a green program that relocates sterilized and vaccinated feral cats to residences or businesses with large rat populations. The program provides a useful role in society for feral cats, who would otherwise be euthanized in shelters. It is humane for both cats and rats, who through traditional extermination methods, die painful deaths through poisoning and glue traps. Instead, the rats are simply repelled by the cats' odor, and leave the site. The program was first implemented in 1999, at the Flower Mart in downtown Los Angeles. The area was plagued by rats, and the extermination methods (spraying poison) was not only making the humans sick, it did not solve the rat problem. Melya Kaplan, Executive Director of Voice For The Animals Foundation, brought in sterilized feral cats, and the rat situation was brought under control. The Los Angeles Police Department is another benefactor of the Working Cats Program. When some of the police stations were overrun with rats, Kaplan stepped in to suggest using the program. "We get cats from the shelter deemed feral (unsocialized), [who are] going to be euthanized because they're not adoptable," says Melya. "We put them on site, where they're going to live for the rest of their lives." The process begins with taking healthy feral cats from shelters and getting them neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated. The cats are then brought to the new environment, and kept in a large holding cages for a minimum of three weeks where they become accustomed with the sights, smells, and sounds of their new location. This is called grounding the cats (acclimating them to their new homes). Once the cats are acclimated to their new environment, they are released into their territory where they will remain. The cats are given fresh food and water by their new owners, which is mandatory because they do not eat the rats. It is the odor of the cats that drives away rodent populations. The program has been successfully implemented in the Flower Mart, Crossroads School Campus, The Los Angeles Police Department (Wilshire, Foothill, and Southeast Divisions), the Self Realization Lake Shrine in the Pacific Palisades, and various residences and small businesses. Other animal advocacy organizations around the country are now beginning to use this program.

References

"Rodenticides: Topic Fact Sheet" "National Pesticide Information Center" <http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/rodenticides.pdf> Pool, Bob. "Rat Patrol: Feral Cats Nip a Problem in the Flower District." Los Angeles Times 28 Aug 2002. Bartholomew, Dana. "Feral Cats Put To Work: Fe-9 team called in for rat control" Daily News 5 Aug 2004 "Working Cats Help Rid Businesses, Homes of Rats" America Now News Web. 22 Aug 2013. <http://www.americanownews.com/story/21302748/working-cats-help-get-rid-of-rats> Kollus, Brad. "Will Work For Food." Cat Fancy. Vol 53, p. 43. July 2010. Harty, Nancy. "North Side's 47th Ward Using Feral Cats to Catch Rats." <http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/06/28/north-sides-47th-ward-using-feral-cats-to-catch-rats/> June 28, 2012. Deckhard, Linda. "Rat Patrol." Venues Today. p. 31. Jan 2008. <http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/voicefortheanimals/pages/22/attachments/original/1383169399/Scan0002_(2).pdf?1383169399> <http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/voicefortheanimals/pages/22/attachments/original/1383169551/willworkforfood.pdf?1383169551>

Hall, Carla. "LAPD Puts Cats on Patrol." Los Angeles Times. 29 Dec 2007.

External links Voice for the Animals Foundation - Working Cats Program

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Working Cats Program

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Working Cats Program claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Working Cats Program before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Working Cats Program ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Working Cats Program

In research: Working Cats Program appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Working Cats Program in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Working Cats Program is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cats in the United States, Mammal pest control, Pest control campaigns, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Working Cats Program outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Working Cats Program in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Working Cats Program means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Working Cats Program out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Working Cats Program in simple terms?

Why does Working Cats Program matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Working Cats Program?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Working Cats Program.