The Importance Of TNR For Feral Cats

There are millions of cats trying to fend for themselves behind grocery stores, under trailers, & in city alley-ways

But there are also millions of kind people like you doing what they can to help them.

Most experts agree that the best way to care for these cats & gradually reduce their numbers is the TNR method

Neutering refers to both male and female cats. The term spaying can be used in reference to female cats. Its important to neuter the males as well as the females.

Kittens as young as nine weeks can be neutered

Nursing females can be spayed when their kittens are eating solid food. If you trap a pregnant cat it is generally best to spay her anyway. If you trap a nursing female and you are unsure about the kittens, then use your best judgement after talking to your vet.

What is TNR?

Trap-Neuter-Return, or "TNR" for short, is the humane approach to controlling feral cat overpopulation. It's a community-based program that involves concerned citizens like you trapping free-roaming cats in your neighborhood, bringing them to a clinic to get them spayed or neutered, and then returning the cats to the exact location where you trapped them so they can live out the rest of their natural lives, ideally with a caregiver also providing food, water and shelter for them.

TNR is the only method proven to be humane and effective at controlling feral cat population growth

Young kittens who can still be socialized, as well as friendly adults, are placed in foster care and eventually adopted out to good homes.

TNR has many advantages

It immediately stabilizes the size of the colony by eliminating new litters. The nuisance behavior often associated with feral cats is dramatically reduced, including the yowling and fighting that come with mating activity and the odor of unneutered males spraying to mark their territory.

The returned colony also guards its territory

preventing unneutered cats from moving in and beginning the cycle of overpopulation and problem behavior anew. Particularly in urban areas, the cats continue to provide natural rodent control.

Another significant advantage to TNR

is that, when practiced on a large scale, it lessens the number of kittens and cats flowing into local shelters. This results in lower euthanasia rates and the increased adoption of cats already in the shelters.

TNR is not just the best alternative to managing feral cat populations - it is the only one that works

Doing nothing has resulted in the current overpopulation crisis. Trying to "rescue" the cats and find them all homes is utopian and unattainable given their numbers and the futility of trying to socialize most of them.

Trap and remove, the traditional technique exercised by animal control, is simply ineffective

If all the cats are not caught, then the ones left behind breed until the former population level is reached. Even if all the cats are removed, new unneutered cats tend to move in to take advantage of whatever food source there was, and the cycle starts again.

Trap and remove doesn’t work

The old approach to controlling free-roaming cats was repeated extermination attempts. Capturing feral cats and turning them in to animal shelters, where they will be killed, may temporarily reduce their numbers, but this doesn't solve the problem for long.

Cats are living there in the environment because of two main reasons:

1) there is a food source (intended or not) and

2) there is some sort of shelter.

When cats are removed from a location, it creates a “vacuum” effect

meaning the surrounding cats can sense it and they breed rapidly to fill in the gap, plus new cats move in to take advantage of the natural food and shelter sources.

This vacuum effect is well documented.

Trapping and removing cats often results in having even more unsterilized cats in the location than when you started. Catch and kill is very costly, doesn't work, and ultimately it's inhumane.

A final note:

taking on the care and feeding of a feral colony is no less a commitment than that of taking care of the family pet. They will become as dependent on you for food and contact as does your cat at home.

So do not undertake this lightly

If you have to move from the area, make sure the colony is taken care of by another feeder. It would be inhumane to abandon a colony that has become dependent on you.

Lastly, TNR is an idea whose time has come

It recognizes there is a new balance in our urban and rural landscape, one that includes feral cats. It seeks to manage this new population with enlightened techniques that allow the cats to live out their lives and fulfill their natures, while minimizing any possible negative impact.

TNR is a movement that will continue to grow as more and more caring people see its potential

and, in time, it will become the predominant method of feral cat management.