We are a small group of community volunteers dedicated to the humane treatment and control of feral cats within the Dryden Community through TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return). Community cats are unowned cats who live outdoors in virtually every landscape on every continent where people live. Like pet cats, they belong to the domestic cat species (Felis catus). However, community cats, also called feral c
ats, are generally not socializedor friendlyto people. They live full, healthy lives with their feline families (called colonies) in their outdoor homes. Trap-Neuter-Return is the only humane, effective approach to community cats, and it helps them and the communities where they live. Community Cats are at Home Outdoors
Cats living outdoors is nothing new. For most of their natural history, cats have lived outside alongside people. Evidence shows cats began living near people over 10,000 years ago, before the pyramids were built! It wasn’t until very recently, with the invention of kitty litter in the 1940s, that so many cats began living indoors only. Community cats are truly at home outdoors, just as countless cats have been for thousands of years. Community Cats Can’t Live Indoors
Community cats are generally not socialized, or friendly, to people. That means they are unable to live indoors with people, and are therefore unadoptable. Community cats should not be taken to shelters because, nationwide, 70 percent of cats in shelters are killed. That number rises to virtually 100 percent for community cats. The only humane and effective approach to community cats is TNR, and more and more communities and shelters are embracing it through Shelter-Neuter-Return (SNR) and Return to Field (RTF) programs. Trap-Neuter-Return Helps Cats and the Community
In a Trap-Neuter-Return program, community cats are humanely trapped, brought to a veterinarian to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and eartipped (the universal sign that a cat has been part of a TNR program), and then returned to their outdoor homes. TNR helps community cats by relieving them of the stresses of mating and breeding, and protecting them from diseases. Communities benefit from TNR because it reduces and stabilizes community cat populations, saves tax-payers’ dollars, helps shelters focus on adoptions, and provides a humane and collaborative way to address concerns and coexist with cats. Community Cats Need Your Help
You have the power to save cats! Together, we can address the misconceptions and threats that cost cats their lives. What is Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR)? Trap-Neuter-Return is the humane and effective approach for stray and feral cats. Now in practice for decades in the US after being proven in Europe, scientific studies show that Trap-Neuter-Return improves the lives of feral cats, improves their relationships with the people who live near them, and decreases the size of colonies over time. Trap-Neuter-Return is successfully practiced in hundreds of communities and in every landscape and setting. It is exactly what it sounds like: Cats are humanely trapped and taken to a veterinarian to be neutered and vaccinated. After recovery, the cats are returned to their hometheir colonyoutdoors. Kittens and cats who are friendly and socialized to people may be adopted into homes. Grounded in science, TNR stops the breeding cycle of cats and therefore improves their lives while preventing reproduction. It is a fact that the removal and killing of outdoor cats that animal control has been pursuing for decades is never ending and futile. Since feral cats are not adoptable, they are killed in pounds and shelters. With a successful program like Trap-Neuter-Return to turn to, it’s hard to believe that animal control agencies continue to kill cats, even though that approach has shown zero results. It is time to put an end to catch and kill. Trap-Neuter-Return provides a life-saving, effective solution for these beautiful, independent cats. There are so many reasons to embrace and promote TNR! Trap-Neuter-Return:
- Stabilizes feral cat colonies
- Improves cats’ lives
- Answers the needs of the community
- Protects cats’ lives
- Works. Other methods just don’t
Trap-Neuter-Return Stabilizes Feral Cat Colonies
Colonies that are involved in TNR diminish in size over time.
- During an 11-year study of TNR at the University of Florida, the number of cats on campus declined by 66%, with no new kittens being born after the first four years of operation.1
- A study of the impact of TNR on feral cat colonies in Rome, Italy, also observed colony size decrease between 16% and 32% over a 10-year period. Trap-Neuter-Return quickly stabilizes feral cat populations by instantly ending reproduction and by removing socialized cats from the colony.
- A TNR program at Texas A&M University neutered 123 cats in its first year, and found no new litters of kittens the following year.
- Over the course of the same study, 20% of the cats trapped were found to be socialized stray cats and adopted. https://www.alleycat.org/
