Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) saves lives
Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is the only humane and effective method of neutering outdoor or stray cats.
Scientific studies show that TNR effectively controls the cat population by ending the breeding season, meaning no new cats are born into the cat colony. As good public policy, TNR solves social problems, reduces seizures and homicides, and reduces calls to animal control, saving cats’ lives and taxpayers’ money.
When cats are not burdened with mating and reproduction, their relationships with their neighbors improve (think: no more kittens wandering around, wandering, fighting, or attacking outside). In addition, many reproductive diseases such as some cancers are prevented.
Alley Cat Allies was founded in 1990 to bring the already successful TNR to the United States. Our aim was to prevent cats from being caught and killed in animal shelters in an ineffective, ineffective and ineffective manner, as has been done for decades. We launched a national organization with educational resources, regional training, advocacy, and law rewriting. Thanks to this hard work,TNR became mainstream and the standard of humane care for animals.
Thousands of people in the United States and around the world have adopted TNR locally or as government policy. TNR serves cats and people in rural and urban areas, cold and warm climates, and everywhere in between.
What is Trap-Neutral-Return? The
TNR process is simple: Community cats are picked up by a human, taken to a veterinary hospital to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated and tagged (the common sign that a cat has been spayed or neutered through the TNR program), and then returned to an outdoor enclosure to continue their lives where they thrive.
It is also a good idea to MICROCHIP cats during TNR and to record the microchip with information from the cat’s breeder or the team performing the TNR. Now, when a cat is taken in by animal control or confined to a shelter and scanned for a microchip, the appropriate people can be notified that the cat, whether neutered or neutered, is outside the home and must be returned immediately.
Bring Trap & Sterilization Back to Your Family
Stray Cat Allies can show you the way. We were the first organization in the United States to develop TNR guidelines, including step-by-step procedures for organizing TNR programs for healthcare providers, volunteers, veterinarians, and advocates. We can help you advocate for TNR policies and guidelines that will save your cat’s life.
Before TNR
For more than a century, the United States’ domestication and animal control programs relied on the trapping and killing of feral cats to control their populations. This system continues to fail, and although millions of healthy, active outdoor cats are euthanized each year, the number of outdoor cats continues to increase. Taxpayer money subsidizes shelters and animal control agencies to trap and kill stray animals forever. Moreover, the public believes that the money spent on killing
can and should be redistributed to animal welfare programs.
With a catch-and-kill policy, cats are removed from the area in the hope that the population will never return. But removing cats only creates a gap in the ecosystem where new cats settle to take advantage of available resources. New cats breed rapidly and the cat population increases or grows again. The catch-and-kill policy is not only cruel and ineffective, it is a way of going against the values of a humane society, which strongly supports humane policies and effective
and cat programs.
TNR After
through TNR, adult cats that have been spayed, vaccinated and neutered are returned to their outdoor homes to live with their wonderful families. Many of these cats have foster parents who use their time and money to provide food and shelter.
TNR balances the needs and concerns of cats and their communities. The truth is that people don’t want cats to be killed. When neighborhood residents bring their cats to animal shelters, they do so with the belief that the cat will be safe and cared for, and will not be killed in a cage for days. What people want is a cat population that develops with human intervention and triggers the cats’ behavior so that they can all live together.
TNR has worked with the community to care for cats, and positive actions are the cure for a happy society where cats and people live in peace. Cats Are Family™ and TNR is a great way to help our feline members!
What’s next for TNR?
TNR is much more than rescuing today’s cats: it is the future of animal control and prevention. Each year, many shelters adopt TNR (or Shelter-Neuter-Return) programs to save more cats and improve their habitats. Join Alley Cat Allies and help us spread the message. You can add TNR to your family!