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Lisa New has saved thousands of cats and dogs on the streets of Guthrie over the years. Now, she is pushing the city for funding to tackle the animal overpopulation problem without killing.
New was born in Bryan, Texas, and moved to Oklahoma City when she was 3. Much of her childhood was spent alone while Mom was working three jobs to support her and her brother.
Her mother was so busy, in fact, that young Lisa began driving to school at age 12. She began connecting with animals at a young age because dogs would lick her face and cats would sit on her lap, loving her unconditionally during times of loneliness.
Throughout her childhood, she raised many animals she found on the street, including dogs, cats and even a cockfighting rooster when she was 6. She also had an old barrel racing horse named Dancer that was kept in the boarding stables, which is where a boy named Chris kept his horse, too. Having horses despite being city folk is what bonded the pair, who later married.
They found a farmhouse in Guthrie and have lived there since 1986. Even before she knew what trapping and releasing cats was, she would fix the cats on her farm and release them, which, incidentally, got rid of their copperhead snake problem at the house.
In 2006, New’s brother found a kitten near his car shop within the city limits of San Antonio. Not long after, there were 42 cats living next to his shop and he could not afford to feed them.
“Bubba, you think you have a lot now, just wait ‘til next year when you have 80. You’re watching them starve to death, we gotta do something,” New told her brother.
That weekend, New came down to San Antonio to help get the cats fixed as the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition was hosting a free trap-andrelease workshop. After learning how to trap the cats efficiently, she asked the host of the workshop if she could borrow 30-40 cat traps.
The speaker there did not think she could get that many cats fixed in the three days New had left before needing to return to Guthrie. After some persuading, the workshop speaker reluctantly gave her the traps and she got the rest of her brother’s cats fixed in only two days.
Von Coburn of the Guthrie Animal Shelter worked with New in the Friends of Guthrie Animal Shelter, paying the expenses so she could spay and neuter pets for people with limited means to do so. When Coburn retired in 2021, New was determined to continue helping these animals, so she started Helping Community Paws and Claws Inc. (HCPC) that year.
Additionally, she has been an animal groomer for 40 years and services dogs and cats with shaves, nail trims, microchips, vaccines and more.
She wakes up at 4:30 every morning to get her chores done, such as dropping off trappedand- fixed cats and cleaning, before her grooming customers come in at 9 a.m. When New is not grooming animals, she is roaming the streets of Guthrie, taking care of other people’s pets or looking for more animals that need help.
After work, every day, New goes to the house where 85-year-old Mrs. Higgins lives and helps her around the house in addition to feeding all 19 of her cats.
As recently as June 18, New found a mama dog on the streets of Guthrie. She fed the dog for two weeks hoping that she would take New to her puppies, but they were never found.
“She had the deepest growl. When I looked into her eyes, all I seen was emptiness. A broken soul, let down by humans,” New said.
The dog’s eyes started to soften and she began to trust New. She named it Journey, hoping the dog will have a good journey. However, the sweet, black-and-white border collie still needs a home.
“People always ask me how I save these animals, but the truth is, they saved me,” New said. “I was once a broken soul and it took animals to regain my trust for people.”
Additionally, in June, New got a call that someone had dropped off nine abandoned, starving puppies at the sand pit in Guthrie. The dogs were so emaciated and small, they looked to be about 2 weeks old, but New could tell from their teeth development that they were about 5 months old and had never been fed.
Her farmhouse is at maximum capacity with dogs and cats, so she could not take them, but they are living with foster parents for the time being. Six of the Stafford Terriermix puppies are still up for adoption.
New stressed the importance of trapping and releasing cats.
“This is what we have to do, it’s why my mission statement says spay and neuter as many animals as possible to help with overpopulation in a humane way,” she said.
This year in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 3660 into law, giving legal protection to those who trap, neuter or spay and release feral cats back into the wild from animal abandonment charges.
Seven years ago, the Sonic on Division Street had 48 feral cats living on the premises. New trapped every one of them and had them fixed before releasing them. Today, the Sonic only has two cats that live on the premises near the dumpster and the park, demonstrating how fast invasive cat populations can be maintained without killing.
Centuries ago, in 1665, the Bubonic Plague spread from Holland to London and people began getting sick and dying. The Lord Mayor declared that dogs and cats spread the disease and should be exterminated. Thousands of natural rodent predators were killed, allowing the plague to spread even more rapidly through mice and rats.
Similarly, feral cats keep mice and snake populations in check from nearby woods and lakes within the city. Cats cannot keep up with the population control of mice and rats in urban cities like San Francisco or New York City, but they can effectively control rodent populations in more rural habitats, according to a study by Australian wildlife researcher Alan Newsome.
New is pushing for the city to create an ordinance protecting street cats from being trapped and killed in the future.
“If the community will be patient with me, I will prove that it’s the right thing to do for the cats and for the city,” she said.
In 2022, New received more than $80,000 from Guthrie community members so she could keep up with her trapping and releasing initiative.
“When the city kills street cats, it also hurts the people who feed and love these kitties,” New said.
New’s farmland is currently at maximum capacity with horses, 15 dogs and 40 cats, as well as 17 other cats in her foster care system.
If you would like to adopt a dog or cat, schedule a grooming appointment, have your pet micro- chipped or cannot afford to take care of your pet, contact Lisa New on Facebook.