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There are a lot of free-roaming cats in the United States. They can be found in virtually every community, from rural settings to the densest urban environments, in warm southern states and cold northern climates. No one knows just how many cats are out there, but estimates range into the tens of millions.
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Though they may look alike there are actually three distinct types of outdoor felines. First, there's pet cats who have homes but are allowed by their owners to roam outside all or part of the time where they may breed with other cats they encounter. Next are strays; friendly cats who become homeless after being lost or abandoned. Finally there are ferals. These cats are either born outside and grow up without being socialized to people, or revert to a more wild state after abandonment and prolonged absence of close human contact. If they are not caught and socialized by the age of about eight weeks it becomes much harder to tame them. Typically, adult feral cats are not adoptable through standard adoption programs. Tragically, the fate of most ferals trapped and brought to municipal shelters is euthanasia.
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What is TNR?*TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) is an effective means of humanely reducing feral cat populations over time while improving quality of life for cats already in the environment.
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How Does TNR Help?*
Cats are prolific breeders and most unwanted kittens and cats filling shelters nationwide result from feral births (consider that at any given point in time roughly 85% of pet cats are spayed and neutered vs approximately 2% of ferals). TNR involves trapping feral cats, having them spayed or neutered and eartipped (under anesthesia the tip of the left ear is removed, permanently identifying the cat as sterilized), vaccinating them against rabies (a significant public health benefit), then returning them to their original locations where trained caretakers provide regular meals, shelter and veterinary care when needed.
Properly implemented, TNR is highly effective. Here's why:
- Unchecked breeding is controlled. Fewer births of unwanted kittens means lower intake at shelters.
- Most feral cat "nuisance behaviors" - the things that cause their human neighbors to resent the cats' presence - are tied to mating. That includes noxious urine smells (from tomcats marking their territories); loud nighttime screeching (fighting over mates); car-hit cats (the frequent result of toms roaming in search of mates) and the presence of sickly kittens. Once neutered, these problems vanish! No more spraying, no more screeching in the wee hours, no roaming, no kittens. After being TNR'd, and supplied with a reliable food source cats become much better neighbors!- virtually invisible, staying quietly in their colonies.
- Killing unwanted feral cats doesn't work because of a phenomenon known as the "vacuum effect". Ferals are drawn to any territory that offers some form of shelter and a food source. If a resident population of cats is removed, others will soon move in to take advantage of that site's available resources. TNR prevents this from happening because spayed and neutered cats remain highly territorial, and will defend their home turf from newcomers. They will also continue to provide effective rodent control, a boon in many environments.
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 We thank our friends at Neighborhood Cats for the valuable information they provided us. For more information regarding TNR and to download a handbook on TNR, please visit www.neighborhoodcats.org;
on  at Neighborhood Cats; and follow on  @NbrhoodCats
Photo by Neighborhood Cats |
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