

Most community cats are not adoptable and shelters are not a hospitable location for a community cat to be held. Will Animal Shelters Adopt Out Community Cats? Ear-tipping prevents an already-spayed or neutered cat the stress of re-trapping and an unnecessary surgery. The procedure is performed by a licensed veterinarian, typically during the spay/neuter surgery and rarely requires aftercare. Ear-tipping is the humane, safe surgical removal of the top quarter-inch of the left or right ear.


What is Ear-Tipping and Why Is It Important?Įar-tipping is a widely accepted means of marking a community cat who has been spayed or neutered.
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How to Help Community Cats and Kittens in Your Area That means they attract fewer tom cats to the area, which reduces fighting and mating. Spaying also means female cats do not go into heat. Neutering male cats also reduces the risk of injury and infection, since intact males have a natural instinct to fight with other cats. Spayed cats are less likely to develop breast cancer and will not be at risk for ovarian or uterine cancer, while neutered males will not get testicular cancer. After being spayed or neutered, cats living in a managed group tend to gain weight and live healthier lives. Nuisance behaviors such as spraying, excessive noisemaking and fighting are also largely eliminated and no additional kittens are born.īy stabilizing the population, cats will naturally have more space, shelter and food and fewer risks of disease. The goal is to sterilize all cats present and monitor the location for any intact newcomers. By sterilizing at least 75% of cats in a group within a six-month period (and continuing to sterilize at least 75% of the remaining intact cats), TNRM helps stabilize the population of community cats and, over time, reduce the number of cats. TNRM has been shown to be the most humane, efficient way of stabilizing community cat populations. TNRM also involves a cat caretaker who provides food and monitors the cats' wellbeing as well as identifying and quickly trapping new intact cats. TNRM is the method of humanely trapping community cats, having them spayed or neutered and vaccinated against rabies, and then returning them to their managed location to live out their lives. Utilizing Trap-Neuter-Return-Monitor (TNRM) to Manage Community Cat Populations By this definition, the only outdoor free-roaming cats who are not community cats are those who have an owner.Ĭommunity cats-who have a dedicated caretaker who provides them with spay/neuter services and regular feedings-can live contently outdoors. A caretaker is a person who conducts TNRM and provides care to a community cat, but who is not the legal owner. These cats can be friendly, feral, adults, kittens, healthy, sick, altered and/or unaltered. “Community Cats” is a term used to describe outdoor, unowned, free-roaming cats. The ASPCA supports Trap-Neuter-Return-Monitor (TNRM) as a humane and effective method to manage community cat populations. Community cats who end up in shelters make up a large percentage of cats euthanized throughout the country every year. While the number of community cats in the United States is estimated to be in the tens of millions, sadly, many communities still opt to control populations using outdated, ineffective methods.
