Community Cats
What is a Community Cat?
Millions of cats who make their homes outdoors are called community cats. Community cats are unowned cats who live outdoors in virtually every landscape on every continent where people live; for most of their natural history, cats have lived outside alongside people. Community cats may or may not be socialized or friendly to people and with a little help from us, they can thrive.
TNR
Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR)
Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is the only humane and effective approach to community cats, it helps them and the communities where they live.
Some of the benefits of TNR are:
- It immediately stabilizes the size of the colony by eliminating new litters being born
- Nuisance behaviors often associated with unfixed cats are dramatically reduced, including the yowling and fighting that come with mating activity and the odor of unneutered males spraying to mark their territory
- Spaying/neutering virtually eliminates the chance of cats developing mammary or testicular tumors
- The returned colony guards its territory, preventing unneutered cats from moving in and beginning a new cycle of overpopulation and problem behavior
- TNR lessens the number of kittens and cats flowing into local shelters. This results in lower euthanasia rates and increased adoption of cats in shelters
- Vaccinations given during TNR protect cats even further and help put community members at ease