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Stray Cats
What is Trap Neuter Return (TNR)?
We can all agree there are too many cats, especially cats that live outside and are considered “feral”. Feral kitties have had no human contact, don’t wish to have any and have always lived outside. When the kittens are caught early enough, they can be socialized in foster homes and adopted out. But these once feral kittens take homes away from all the other social cats and kittens already in shelters needing homes.
Ferals are considered unadoptable and if taken to a shelter, they are euthanized. There are approximately 60 million ferals in the United States. TNR seeks to reduce the number of feral cats while increasing their quality of life. After a feral cat has been spayed or neutered and vaccinated, it is returned to the original colony where it can live out a full, healthy, non-reproductive life. TNR is endorsed by the American Veterinary Medical Association. TNR is the least costly as well as the most efficient and humane way of stabilizing and ultimately reducing the feral cat population.
Certainly, people could instead choose to kill the cats, but it is far more expensive and does not work. Cats are territorial animals, when they are removed from the colony, new ones move in and breed to capacity. So, simply put, if you remove the cats, more will move in.
TNR stops the cycle of reproduction. The San Diego Department of Animal Control showed a decrease of almost 50% in the number of cats intake after starting a TNR program. Spay/neuter reduces undesirable behaviors, such as yowling, fighting and spraying, which also reduces the number of complaint calls made to animal control and the number of healthy feral cats euthanized.
How can All About Animals Help Me?
All About Animals holds monthly TNR training worskshops to teach and empower you to start TNRing the cats in your area. Once you have taken the class you are entitled to major spay/neuter discounts for all ferals.
We loan out live traps for your convenience. If you would like to purchase traps instead of borrow them, we can do that too! We carry Tru-Catch 30LTD traps. They are available for pick up at our clinic in Warren and in Auburn Hills. To purchase: Traps $60, Forks $20.
Feral cats can be dropped off Monday through Thursday at our clinic between 8 am and 10 am without an appointment. They must be in a trap and we can accept up to 3 cats. 4 or more cats, you must have make prior arrangements, call 586-435-6930 or click here and reference that this appointment is for feral cats. 1 cat per trap please. Pick up for cats is 7:30 am the next day.
FREE TNR for Oakland County ferals after attending this TNR training workshop; this is a very limited time offer. Outside Oakland County: $25. TNR includes sterilization, ear tip and rabies vaccine. This workshop teaches the best practices in management and trapping. Gain access to the benefits of our TNR program, including discount feral cat spay/neuter, trap loans and networking.
We honor feral cat certification from MHS.
*Free Oakland County TNR is limited to 2012 grant funds and is scheduled to end February 28, 2013 until further notice!
Links
Attend a 2 1/2 hour workshop and gain access to the benefits of our TNR program
Click here to see how to keep cats out of gardens and yards
Click here to see our TNR wish list
Click here to see our general wish list
Additional TNR resources from Neighborhood Cats and Alley Cat Allies
How to use a Drop Trap
How to transfer a cat from a drop trap to a regular trap
Drop trap design (we also have drop traps available to loan out)
Winter Tips
Courtesy of NYC Feral Cat Initiative website and Neighborhood Cats
Click again for even more tips!
Shelter Building Plans:
AAAR Winter Shelter Building Supplies:
• Nashua aluminum foil multipurpose tape – Found at Lowes/Home Depot in the dryer, duct work department ($8)
•Large styrofoam cooler boxes – Just like fish shipment boxes or used for medicines to be shipped to hospitals. Check with your large chain pet shops, grocery stores, veterinary hospitals and human hospitals.
• In lieu of Styrofoam coolers, heavy duty plastic storage tubs: two heavy duty storage bins that fit inside of each other with plenty of room for insulation between the two (on all sides and the top). Smaller of the two should be at least an 18 gallon. Outer container preferably should be Rubbermaid – won’t crack in cold weather.
• Straw (not hay. Dry straw that hasn’t been wet before)
• Reflectix mylar insulation – Found at Lowes/Home Depot in the insulation department. ($24)