We recently connected with Samantha Ginsburg and have shared our conversation below.
Samantha , so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
Looking back on my life, I realize that my love for all animals, especially cats, is the one constant positive connection. I have always had cats in my life from infancy right up to today. Cats seem to be able to find me wherever I go, especially those in need.
I have been volunteering with various rescues and projects since I graduated high school (almost 40 years and counting). In the fall of 2014, I was volunteering at a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for a local cat sanctuary. This was my third year helping with this event. I loved this no-kill, non-profit sanctuary for taking in so many cats and promoting low-cost spay/neuter and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). At this particular dinner, a wonderful young woman approached me. She said she was looking for help with a colony of community cats behind a disgusting dumpster in a parking lot a block from the office where I ran our family business. It was so well disguised that I never noticed a cat there despite driving by at least twice a day. She was looking for help feeding and fixing the rest of the cats that had gathered there. I told her I would go and see what I could do since I was already helping with a few other colonies near my office.
A few days later, I walked to the area to check out this new colony after work. It was chilly for October, and I saw a few cats huddled on a high cement wall. I looked around and noticed no shelters or protected feeding areas, just a few empty bowls on the cold, damp ground. My heart shattered, and I began to cry. No domesticated animal would ever choose this harsh and challenging life. With our brutal PA winter just around the corner, I knew these less fortunate cats needed immediate help. I committed to feeding the cats on weekdays. I would also help get them fixed, vetted, and build shelters for them. These shelters and feeding areas are not just physical structures, but lifelines for these outdoor cats. Almost every time I went over there, I observed new cats. As fast as we fixed them, more would show up. We eventually fixed them all, friendly and feral. We found homes for the friendly ones, and the feral cats did their best to coexist in the expanding complex of shelters we cobbled together for them.
Before working with this colony, all of the cats I helped TNR and fed over the previous years lived outside at a residence or had some sort of basic shelter and utilities. At this colony I had to start from scratch. I frantically collected Styrofoam coolers and made insulated cat shelters with the help of my husband and our employees. I was relieved knowing these cats would have a warm place to hunker down and survive the winter. Little did I know this would be the foundation for what was to come. By 2018, word was out that I was the cat shelter lady. We had made over 500 shelters and fixed over 60 cats on this street alone. I was able to donate shelters and make additional ones that we sold at cost for other neighborhood cats in need. I used any donations that came in to help fix as many cats as I could. I mentored many compassionate people and provided humane traps for other caretakers who wanted to help the homeless cats in their own neighborhoods.
Nothing makes my heart happier than helping the helpless. I firmly believe that we must give back to make the world a better place. Working two jobs, volunteering, and caring for all these cats left me with very little spare time, but so many people reached out for help that I knew it was time to take this unusual calling to the next level. My husband suggested I start a company that could help to support my passion for helping community cats. After much thought and planning, in December 2020 I excitedly announced my official new mission to the world with my first CATSA newsletter. All proceeds from our online store, CATSAMart, and from our shelter sales would help fund the development of our own patented outdoor shelter design, help us hold local spay/neuter clinics, and support our ongoing community cat advocacy.
Each fall, we improved upon the previous iteration of our insulated shelters, but the costs of materials were becoming prohibitive. We knew our experience could help us do better. Hundreds of hours of research, design, and prototyping have gone into the CATSA Shelter Project. In June 2024, after four years and many revisions, CATSA was finally granted a United States Design Patent for what we believe is the best outdoor cat shelter option available. Our next focus will be manufacturing them in the USA as cost-effectively as possible so we can get them out into the world.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My fantasy is to fix ALL the cats and dogs! When I finally win the lottery, this is obviously the first thing I will tackle. Next, I would ensure every outdoor cat had one of my CATSA shelters to hunker down in. Cats would be my main focus, since many people do not like them or just ignore them. All too often the cats we work with have been abandoned, tossed outside, or left behind and discarded like trash. The outdoor life and mother nature can be very cruel to community cats, and their dramatically shortened life expectancy reflects this struggle. Unfortunately, neglect is only part of the story. If you ask any community cat volunteer, they will tell you that there is no shortage of mean people who do not think twice about intentionally doing harm to outdoor cats, including shooting them, poisoning them, and even worse things than I care to repeat here. Many of the horrific atrocities against cats that I have witnessed have been burned into my brain. This is not only soul-crushing, but it is extremely disturbing.
I originally learned about anthropocentrism when studying environmental policy for my master’s degree in the early 90s. This is basically the belief that value is human-centered; humans are at the top of everything. Everything else holds value only in its ability to serve humans. Most humans have evolved/devolved to exist in a paradigm that sees themselves at the top of all other species. If you look at the world today, this helps explain much of our current crisis, not only in the world of animal rescue, but also on Earth, the planet we all call home and share.
As an empath, I tend to be more attuned to the struggles around me, and empathy is the guiding force in my life. CATSA is deeply personal to me, and I hope that by sharing my story you feel a connection to the work we strive to do. The world has a significant deficiency of love. The cruelty I witness against animals, humans, and the Earth evokes a deep sense of sorrow, pain, and grief. It is hard to explain if you are not wired like I am, but it is a burden and an ongoing challenge. Every morning, I wake, meditate, and practice gratitude. I get to live for another day, which I never take for granted. I am mindful to be positive, kind, loving, and compassionate in my actions. I believe that people like me are put here to help the helpless, spread love, and to teach compassion. This helps make the world a better place for everyone and everything. One might assume such qualities are innate, but I believe they are all too often taken for granted. Children should be taught the importance of compassion and encouraged to volunteer for something they love, believe in, and that helps to improve the world.
No animal should endure having litter after litter or being tossed out because it has more unwanted kittens. No cat should be kicked out of the only home it knows because it is in heat, spraying, fighting, or in need of medical care. Each of us has the power to prevent these situations. How can people move and leave their pets behind? How do people torture cats? I often wonder how people with zero compassion got to be that way. I frequently imagine how scared these truly helpless cats feel. Pets are for life, and they are a huge responsibility. Pets can teach children and adults about love, loss, responsibility, empathy, and even financial budgeting. They are not a temporary distraction that can be outgrown and neglected. If you look at social media, these lessons have been lost on many, but in the face of today’s challenges, it is heartening to see the role of volunteers who do what they can with limited resources. Managed community cat colonies are maintained by dedicated volunteers under the TNR ethos: Trap, Neuter, and Return the cats back to their original location. Their dedication and compassion make a real difference. Humans create these situations, and volunteers are the ones who step up to help. I know we will never be able to save all the neglected animals, but the ones we can help will have better lives thanks to the invaluable contributions of volunteers and those who are willing to take action.
I am grateful to have met such a diverse community of fantastic, compassionate, and selfless people involved in rescue. The glue that holds us together and keeps me going is this community working together and supporting each other. Our ear-tipped CATSA logo honors community cat caretakers’ endless compassion and quiet dedication everywhere. The more you learn about their selfless, long-term commitments, the more amazing these community cat heroes are. Until you walk a day in our shoes, you will never understand our burdens and the unrealistic expectations many put on us. What we do is physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially exhausting.
The never-ending lack of compassion and lack of action we experience in rescue work is absolutely mind-blowing. I will never understand how well-intentioned people will take the time to feed stray and feral cats outside, but they do nothing to get them fixed or vetted. How many people see dying cats, injured cats, pregnant cats, cats in need of immediate emergency medical care, and they just assume it is someone else’s responsibility. These cats are helpless and depend on humans for almost everything they need to exist. If they get lost, it’s not like they can call up the microchip company to help them find their owners.
It’s estimated that over a million cats are unnecessarily euthanized each year. This is unacceptable in a civilized society. With an estimated 50-100 million stray/feral cats living in the USA and billions of dollars spent on animal control each year, these numbers are not just unacceptable, they are horrific. We must do better, especially since there are free and low-cost clinics in almost every state.
The mission of CATSA is not only to provide outdoor shelters for cats but also to educate and advocate. I have met some of the most wonderful people in rescue, but the sad truth is the majority of us spend our own time and money on TNR projects since community funding is scarce. Imagine a world where instead of spending billions to trap and kill outdoor cats each year, we used this money to provide resources for spay and neuter initiatives. Instead of trapping and euthanizing, we can develop more humane programs to trap, fix, and offer barn homes to working cats and indoor homes for friendly cats. This would require a significant paradigm shift to get boroughs, townships, cities, and states on board, but this is my dream. The impact of TNR on the community is significant, offering a humane and effective solution to the issue of stray/feral cats. Education is vital to making this dream a reality, and it empowers us to make informed decisions and take action. When we work together, it is inspiring.
We will never be able to adopt our way out of our current crisis model. We need change and more resources. We need High-Quality, High-Volume spay-neuter, and TNR to become the norm. I will advocate until I take my last breath, but what you need to hear me say most is this: What we do as volunteers is not special; anyone can help cats have better lives. It is pretty simple: if you feed cats, you MUST fix them. This should be free or affordable because not everyone has the means or information necessary to help these cats. Humans have created this problem through a lack of humane, civic-minded policies; therefore, we must do what we can to remedy this dire situation. We must work together to educate and advocate for the plight of the feral/stray cat. No cat would ever choose this life. We genuinely need humane policies at the local, state, and national levels, as well as education and funding to tackle the problem collectively. Until this day comes, I will do everything in my power to be a voice for the voiceless. I will use CATSA to provide community cats with shelter and help get cats fixed. Your involvement is crucial; YOU are someone, and YOU can help make a difference.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back over my of life, I realize that empathy, strong organizational skills, and patience are three of the most impactful skills and qualities on my journey. Together, they are an excellent foundation for almost anything you may take on. With age, this skill set has only gotten stronger and the interdependencies are more obvious. Empathy has strengthened my respect and connection to animals and my passion for helping cats. My organizational skills afford me the perspective that life is too short to not set inspiring goals and to make progress every day. This truly helps to achieve things that you love and have a passion for. While embracing patience helps me see clearly, and celebrate the small victories, which in turn leads me to make more informed decisions. If you have not learned these traits, it can be challenging to rewire how you think, how you feel, and how you view the world. Meditation and practicing gratitude have helped me immensely. It is essential to take life one minute at a time and try to be present in everything you do. (I fully recognize this is easier said than done, but is important, so you really should give it a try!) Above all, what has truly made a difference is the people I surround myself with. Their support, their values, and their presence in my life have been a source of great comfort and strength. This inspires me to take actions from a place of love and kindness. This is not for everybody, but it helps my mind stay calm while living in a world filled with social inequality and a spiraling global environmental crisis.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
Since launching in 2020, I have made new friendships and have connected with like-minded cat lovers all over the country and beyond. The support and positive feedback I’ve received has been invaluable. However, getting the CATSA mission out to the larger cat rescue community and cat lovers of the world has been an ongoing challenge. I am grateful for the exposure on both local and national levels, from an article in the #1 magazine for cat lovers, Catster, to the WSJ Holiday Gift Guide, to being a featured artist on the Very Local streaming series, Maker Nation. The immense value of community support has become clear to me. It’s not just a boost to our sales, it’s also a validation of our mission.
Along the way I’ve also learned that media exposure can help connect us to a wider audience, but it does not always correlate with a positive impact on sales. I am proud to run a woman-owned business that makes its products in the USA and donates 100% of its net income back into the community, but I’ve come to understand that our message doesn’t always resonate. I try not to get too upset when people say they can purchase ‘similar’ products at large international chain stores for much less. I understand that many people do not have discretionary income, and we live in a time of financial insecurity.
There is always room for improvement, perseverance is important, and any success should be celebrated – especially if it means we are inspiring people to action. We will keep on striving for the stars.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://catsa.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catsanaut/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CATSAPGH
Image Credits
CATSA.co
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