Catnip Nation

Directed by Tina Traster
Run time: 77 min.
Pre-book: 1/28/20
​Street: 2/18/20

SRP: $24.95
CAT#: PRDVD4675
UPC: 602573829844
​​Genres: Documentary, Animal Studies, Criminal Law

Synopsis:
Good Samaritans risk hostility, political persecution, and legal prosecution to care for feral cats living in colonies. The three main characters in the documentary Catnip Nation, who live miles apart and come from different walks of life, invite us into a world of advocacy, political wrangling, and legal intrigue. Despite their passion for animals, the success of their battles is mixed but the message is consistent: This nation needs better policy to humanely manage “community cats,” and to protect people who look after them.

Long Synopsis:
​Would you risk arrest for a cat? A stray cat? Would you disassociate yourself from your longtime political allies and upset your status quo to protect cats? Stray cats? Would you wage a public relations war to expose abusive government officials or police officers who take aim at (or exact revenge on) people who toil daily to improve the lives of cats? Stray cats? The heroes of Catnip Nation have done all of these things. 
Sue and Ray Jones are a 75 year-old couple in Augusta, Kansas facing $5,000 in fines and 14 days jail time for putting a bowl of water out for a handful of feral cats living in an alley behind their store. 

As a petty act of political retribution, Stanley Lombardo of Oceanside, NY has been barred from his 30-year post as a volunteer at the local landfill where he cared for a colony of 40 abandoned cats, and was forced to watch helplessly as the town supervisor denied these cats any access to food/water, while threatening to arrest anyone for trespassing who attempted to save these cats lives. 
New Jersey's Ken Salerno was the colony caretaker for 65 cats living under the Seaside Heights boardwalk when the newly elected mayor put out an executive order to kill all of the cats. 
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These stories are not unique. There are more than 90 million feral cats in the United States and without laws in place to protect community cats, colony caretakers are vulnerable to the whims of government officials, law enforcement, private property owners and the justice system. Ultimately, Catnip Nation is an advocacy tool for activists to unite and come forward to demand laws and/or policy on Trap Neuter Return, a decade’s-old form of population control for feral cats. 

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