NATCHEZ — A recent anonymous $5,000 donation coupled with the hopes of receiving a small grant could lend a big hand to reducing Natchez’s stray cat problem.

Ginna Holyoak, one of the locals who spearheaded the area’s spay-and-neuter initiative, said an anonymous $5,000 donation would help fix approximately 75 stray cats as part of their trap, neuter and release program.

Holyoak said neutering 75 strays could lead to an exponential benefit in controlling the population.

“Each one they fix, you’re saving hundreds of animals from being born and having to find homes,” Holyoak said. “And ultimately, they end up being the responsibility of the people at the shelter and volunteers to take care of them.”

For the past several years, a passionate cohort of Natchezians has worked to humanely alleviate the area’s animal overpopulation problem, beginning just less than a decade ago when Holyoak and her friends attended a Mississippi Spay and Neuter (MS SPAN) conference to see what they could do in Natchez.

Through collaboration with MS SPAN President Elaine Adair, the group brought to Natchez the “Little Fix Rig,” a mobile unit in which veterinarians performed more than 500 spay or neuter surgeries over the course of 13 months.

Holyoak has also raised funds with the annual Spay-ghetti and No Balls lunch, which began in 2011 and has raised approximately $28,000 for 1,673 surgeries, according to MS SPAN data.

A third source of income is the aforementioned grant Adams County has received the past two years and that Holyoak will ask permission from the county’s board of supervisors Monday to apply for the third consecutive year.

The grant is funded by donors who give to certain causes when purchasing their car tags — in this case, the “I care for animals” tag.

Holyoak said the grant should provide another $3,000 this year, compared to $1,500 in year one and $4,000 last year.

Overall, the various initiatives have contributed to surgeries for approximately 2,300 animals since 2009, Holyoak said.

But to truly make progress, she said, people have to be active in the spay and neuter program, lest animals proliferate and local shelters continue to bear a heavy burden.

Even simply just donating to the cause, however, can make a big difference, Holyoak said.

“A lot of times there are people that donate money and that enables people like me to do the legwork,” she said. “Putting faith in other people that are really involved and passionate to really put the money to work.”

And even those who do not like animals, she said, would benefit by donating, because that money helps tamp down the amount of strays running around the city.

Holyoak said anyone wishing to donate to MS SPAN’s Natchez fund, which will go toward fixing feral cats, could send donations to the organization at 100 Business Center Parkway, Suite B, Pearl, MS 39208. Donations should be specified that they are going to the Natchez Feral Cat Fund.