Peo​ple all over the country, from all walks of life, care for outdoor cats every day. Like them, you’ve discovered cats in your community, and you want to help them. The millions of cats who make their homes outdoors are called community cats. You may also hear them being referred to as “feral cats.”

 

Many people care for community/feral cats by providing food and shelter.   The best way you can help community/feral cats is through Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) - having the cats spayed/neutered and vaccinated.  TNR ensures no new kittens are born, stabilizes cat populations, and improves their quality of each cat's life living outdoors.

 

What Is Trap-Neuter-Return?

​

Trap-Neuter-Return is the only humane and effective approach to community cat populations. Here are the basic steps to this lifesaving process:

1. Trap: Humanely trap all the cats in a colony. A colony is a group of cats living outdoors together.

 

2. Spay/Neuter: Take the cats in their traps to a veterinarian or low-cost clinic to be S/N, vaccinated, and given a left ear tip. (the universal symbol of a spayed/neutered outdoor cat)

 

3. Return: After the cats recover (24-hour period) return them to their outdoor home environment where they were trapped.  There are many videos online showing how to do Trap-Neuter-Return. Do you research first before trapping.