PAWS is an organization that helps to raise campus awareness about animal needs. They find different animal aid organizations around San Antonio that need volunteers or supplies.
In order to send out information about all of the volunteer opportunities, they have created a group page on Facebook called “P.A.W.S. of UTSA–Protectors of Animal Welfare and Safety.”
Every day, students can look at the page to check for new posts on the organization’s activities. PAWS encourages the collaboration of many groups, including The Helotes Humane Society, PETCO and many other animal protection groups.
Every other Thursday, there are meetings to discuss updates. PAWS makes it as convenient as possible to be a member and contribute to the animal society. Anyone who wants to start helping out can find donation boxes all over campus asking for towels, collars, leashes and other animal supplies to donate.
Some of the staff sponsors for PAWS are members of the Roadrunner Cat Coalition therefore, PAWS sometimes works with the Roadrunner Cat Coalition in helping out the cats on campus, but the Cat Coalition is a separate faculty/staff organization. Their main focus is the feral cats that inhabit the UTSA campus.
There have always been people feeding cats on campus, but when the organization started, they decided to be more proactive in helping out. In 2006, the group started registering on campus as an official student organization. They continued feeding the cats but also began to take them to be spayed and neutered. They make sure that all the cats have their shots and if any are injured, they are taken to the vet.
The campus cat population has decreased to around 20 or 30 and every time a kitten is found it is taken into a foster home and taken care of until it is adopted. By actively helping the cats, the group is reducing the homeless cat population and helping with the No Kill initiative for San Antonio.
All of the cats are friendly and they are content to keep to themselves and reduce the mice and snake population.
Like most on-campus organizations, the Cat Coalition does not receive funds from the university and sustains their activity on donations and out of the organization members’ own pockets. There is a group account at the Frost Bank on campus where people can deposit donations. The group has a few cats up for adoption right now.
To find out more information about either group, contact Karen Williams, a staff sponsor and member who can be found in the business school directory.
