National feline advocacy group the Catalyst Council will expand its Cat Friendly Practice Makeover program and roll out a pilot program to strengthen relationships between animal control agencies next year, the company reported today. The organization’s board also retained two members and elected two members. The council’s board voted at its annual meeting in November to expand the Cat Friendly Practice Makeover program after encouraging results from during its 2011 pilot year. The program, which transfers “ordinary” veterinary practices into “more cat-friendly practices,” helped the “best-performing and most engaged practices” that participated achieve an increase between 14 and 33 percent in feline revenue from May through September of this year compared to the year-ago period. The group, based in Annapolis, Md., plans to release full results from the program in early in 2012. The board also voted to launch a pilot program called “Top to Top,” designed to build coalitions and strengthen relationships between animal care and control agencies and veterinarians in local communities. Finally, the board voted to retain chair Alexis Nahama, vice president of marketing at VCA Antech and treasurer Karen Felsted, DVM, C.P.A., M.S., C.V.P.M., CEO of Felsted Consulting; and elected Bill Lopez, vice president of U.S. pets marketing at Merial, as vice chair and Jan McHugh-Smith, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, as secretary. <HOME>
