TNR Handbook - Neighborhood Cats

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The Neighborhood Cats TNR Handbook handbook, the traps effectively double as cages and the cats can be comfortably housed and fed in them. Depending on how many cats you’re working with, the time the cats are held will usually run from four to six days. The holding space must be warm, dry and secure. Examples could include a garage, basement, warehouse, empty room in an apartment, a canopy set up in a backyard and anywhere the temperature can be kept warm, the cats can be protected from the elements and no threat of harm can come from other animals or people not associated with the project. Step four: Schedule spay/neuter and secure needed equipment & transportation Once you’ve educated the community on what you’re doing, set up a feeding pattern and counted the cats, and found a suitable holding space, you can safely schedule your spay/neuter date. How many of the cats you schedule at once will depend on the cost and availability of spay/neuter, the availability of traps, your time limitations and the size of the holding space. If traps are available for borrowing, reserve them right after you’ve scheduled your spay/neuter appointment. You may need to adjust your appointment in order to have enough equipment on hand. Also, if needed, arrange for transportation for bringing the cats from their territory to the holding space and then to the spay/neuter clinic. Step five: Trap Now that everything is in place, the trapping can proceed. Food is withheld from the cats the entire day before trapping begins. How many days you allot for trapping will depend on the number of cats you’re after. Leaving two days is advisable, three if you’re after more than a few cats. This leaves room for poor weather, the cats for some reason not showing up that day or other unexpected conditions. Step six: Spay Day Food and water are withheld the night before the surgeries. The next morning, the cats are transported to the clinic where standard treatment includes spay/neuter, eartipping and rabies vaccination. Flea and ear mite treatment are recommended if available and affordable. Step seven: Recovery & release If everything goes normally, the cats are confined for 48 hours after surgery, then released back to their territory. During the time they’re held, both before and after the spay/neuter, the cats should be fed and their traps cleaned twice a day. Step eight: Long-term care and monitoring While the bulk of the work is done after the cats are neutered, TNR does not end there. For the method to be successful, a designated caretaker must feed the cats regularly, make sure there is adequate shelter, watch out for and trap any newcomers, and act as an intermediary with the community. 9
The Neighborhood Cats TNR Handbook 4. Building Good Community Relations For the most part, feral cats live among us, their territory overlapping our own. Many people will interact with the cats on a daily basis, whether it’s leaving out food, playing with them or watching them from a distance. There will be those who love the cats and enjoy their presence, while others may be angry at the noise and odor. Few people are aware anything can be done to improve the situation both for the cats and the community they live within. To ensure the long-term security of the colony and to facilitate your trapping and caretaking, the community and its attitudes towards the cats must be taken into account. Whenever possible, efforts need to be made to shape these attitudes in a favorable way. To ignore this aspect of TNR and go about the work with no concern for the neighborhood in general is to potentially place the cats and your project in needless peril. With a little education about what you’re doing and its advantages, understanding and support can be built. In this respect, TNR is not only about working with cats, but about community activism and working with people. What exactly is the “community” will vary according to the circumstances. It might be a factory and the people who work there, a municipal facility and the agency that runs it, a homeowner and his backyard, a condominium complex, a hospital or even an entire town or neighborhood. No matter how broadly or narrowly the relevant community is defined, the importance of developing good relations is paramount. For example, it will be much easier to trap if you have permission to enter someone’s property than if you trespass and try not to be spotted. Feeding and care, too, is simpler and more reliable when you have the community’s support as opposed to hoping no one in authority cracks down on you or starts throwing away the food. Releasing cats back onto property where the residents know what you’re doing and approve of TNR is much safer for the cats than putting them back into an uncertain situation and hoping for the best. By performing TNR, you’re helping to get a problem under control that effects everyone who lives or works at the colony’s location. In this respect, TNR is a community service. So let people know you’re helping them! You may be surprised at how many welcome and appreciate your efforts. Before you can win over the neighborhood, you need to educate yourself about TNR and be able to speak persuasively about its many advantages. Review Chapter 2 closely for this purpose. Once you can talk about TNR in a convincing manner, then you can begin to effectively use the following community development techniques. 10
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Page 3 and 4: Contents The Neighborhood Cats TNR
Page 7 and 8: Foreword The Neighborhood Cats TNR
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The Neighborhood Cats TNR Handbook
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• Directions for use by Laura Bur
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10. Caring for Cats in Traps The Ne
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TNR Handbook - Neighborhood Cats

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