What is TNR?  (Trap, Neuter, Return)

Greater Oneonta Fund for Animal Responsibility

What is Trap-Neuter-Return? Trap-neuter-return, commonly known as TNR, is the only method proven to be effective at controlling feral cat population growth. TNR involves trapping all or most of the cats in a colony, getting them neutered, and then returning them to their territory. The returned cats, who are eartipped to identify them as neutered, are provided regular food and shelter and are monitored by their caretaker for newcomers. Whenever possible, kittens young enough to be readily socialized and friendly adults are removed and placed for adoption.

TNR immediately stabilizes the size of the colony if at least 70 percent of the fertile adults are neutered. Neutering closer to 100 percent will result in a gradual decline of the population over time. In addition, the nuisance behavior often associated with feral cats is dramatically reduced. This includes the yowling and noise that comes with fighting and mating activity and the odor of unneutered males spraying to mark their territory. The cats tend to roam less and so become less of a visible presence. They continue to provide natural rodent control, a particularly valuable benefit in urban areas.

On a community-wide scale, TNR also has several advantages. Foremost, the neutering of ferals lowers the number of cats and kittens flowing off the streets into local shelters. This can have a substantial positive impact on euthanasia rates. For example, in San Diego, after only two years of county-wide TNR, euthanasia of cats dropped by over 40 percent. In San Francisco, after six years of a citywide TNR program, the euthanasia rate for all cats, domestic and feral, dropped by over 70 percent. The rate for domestic cats drops when there are fewer ferals because the lack of street kittens means less competition for spots in adoptive homes. Another potential advantage on a large scale is cost savings to animal control agencies. Traditionally, the cost involved with feral cats includes the time it takes for an officer to trap the cat, the expense of feeding and sheltering during the usual mandatory waiting period before the animal can be euthanized, and the cost of the euthanasia procedure. In contrast, the only cost involved with TNR is the neutering and vaccination of each cat. The rest of the work – trapping, feeding, and so on – is done by volunteers.

In a study in Orange County, Florida, over the course of two and a half years of a new TNR program, cost savings were found to be 47 percent (which came to over $109,000 in this particular case). TNR has the ability to mobilize large numbers of volunteers because it is life-affirming, which is in itself an advantage. Catching the vast number of feral cats now at large in many communities requires an army of volunteers, as animal control alone can rarely make even the slightest dent in the problem. That army is not going to step forward if the ultimate fate of the felines is to be killed. But if people know the cats will be released and then cared for, experience repeatedly demonstrates they will offer their time and effort. Failed Alternatives is perhaps the most significant argument in favor of trap-neuter-return in that not only does it (TNR) succeed in controlling feral populations when properly implemented – it’s the only known method that ever has! The traditional approach has been “trap-and-kill,” whereby feral cats are trapped, usually by animal control, and then invariably euthanized. The typically out-of-control feral cat numbers in most regions should be testimony enough to the failure of this method. The reasons why it almost always fails in the long term are clear.

First, as you’ll discover if you become active in TNR, it’s not easy to catch all the cats in a feral colony. If there are a large number of cats, it can take several days and a lot of persistence. Animal control agencies rarely have the resources to make this kind of sustained effort. Instead, what normally happens is that animal control officers set some traps, catch some of the cats, and make a temporary reduction in the colony’s numbers. At this point though, nature kicks in. Feral colonies grow in size up to the number of cats their food source can support. Once the colony is reduced, the remaining cats overbreed until the ceiling imposed by the food source is reached again, and the temporary drop in population is quickly erased. Even assuming all the cats in a colony are caught and removed, that still won’t lower the population in the long run.

This is due to the “vacuum effect,” first observed by Roger Tabor in his studies of London street cats (The Wild Life of the Domestic Cat). No feral colony is an island; it is surrounded by other feral cat groups in adjoining territories. If a colony is removed but its food source remains, cats in neighboring territories will move in and start the cycle of reproduction again. Normally, most of these cats stay out of the territory if it is occupied by a colony of sufficient size. You might ask, Why not remove the food source along with the cats and avoid the patterns just described? That’s much easier said than done. The food source might be the daily waste from a restaurant or mess hall, or garbage left out for collection, or cans of food that continue to be left by the cats’ caretaker. Trying to control all this and stop food from being available is rarely a practical alternative. This last point also indicates another reason why it is almost impossible to eradicate feral cats from an area: their caretakers.

Feral cat caretakers are a devoted breed who will often do whatever is in their power to feed and protect their feline wards, including violating feeding bans, trespassing on private property, and interfering with the trapping efforts of animal control agencies. The trap-and-kill approach turns these caretakers into enemies. TNR, on the other hand, mobilizes them into an enormous force for population control. At the other end of the spectrum of failed alternatives to TNR is the rescue model, which views the cats as essentially domestic animals who belong in human homes and should be placed in them. This vision may have been plausible at one time, in areas where there were only a few stray cats, most of them recently abandoned. It doesn’t make sense now, when the number of feral cats is in the millions in many countries.

Once past kittenhood, ferals can be very difficult to socialize, and there are not nearly enough homes available for them anyway. Plenty of domestic cats are now dying in shelters for lack of space. Why bring in ferals off the streets when they can be maintained where they are, in a manner more befitting their unique natures? Another method often adopted in individual situations is to try to make the cats go away by depriving them of food. The belief is that the cats will look for another food source. In fact, depriving the cats of food often has the opposite effect – they just come closer. Ferals are extremely territorial, and their nature keeps them from wandering off. Rather than leaving to find food elsewhere, they’ll encroach further into human habitations within their territory in search of sustenance. Depriving the cats of food is also obviously rather cruel, as it can result in their starvation. TNR has the advantage of being humane because it respects the cats’ right to live and provides them with as high a quality of life as possible under the circumstances. It is also effective at lowering population levels, both within individual colonies and across entire communities. Other methods not only cost more; they don’t work. TNR is clearly the future when it comes to enlightened care of feral cats.

What is a “Feral” Cat?

A feral cat is a cat who has reverted in some degree to a wild state. Such cats originate from domestic cats who have been lost or abandoned and have learned to live outdoors or in structures such as warehouses, factories, abandoned buildings, or barns. They adapt to urban areas as well as rural, establishing themselves in back alleys, parking lots, and piers, to name a few. In most cases, feral cats are not completely wild because they still depend on people for food, whether the source is a caretaker who comes by once or twice a day, a dumpster outside a restaurant, garbage cans, or the like.

Relatively few feral cats subsist by hunting alone. Just how feral a cat is depends on several factors. First is the age of the cat. After six or seven weeks, a kitten’s ability to socialize starts to diminish. How many generations the particular line of cats has been living outside a human home is another important factor. A cat born to a mother who was herself a domestic will tend to be less feral than a cat who is tenth-generation living outdoors. The amount of human contact is a third factor. If the cats have regular interaction with people, they’ll be less wild than if they live in a spot where there is little or no contact. Finally, the individual cat’s personality must be considered. Every once in a while, you’ll come upon an adult cat who is many generations feral and rarely has contact with people yet is quite friendly. This, however, is very much the exception. It’s important to recognize that if a cat is truly feral, then the most compassionate choice may be to allow him to live outdoors.

Trying to domesticate such a cat is little different from trying to make a squirrel or a raccoon a household companion – you might succeed somewhat, but never fully and only with a great deal of time and patience. Moreover, you would not be permitting the animal to live in the manner that suits him best. Many well-meaning people, convinced they are “saving” a feral cat by bringing him indoors, end up condemning the poor creature to a life of hiding under the bed and being in constant fear. Better a fuller, even if riskier, life in freedom.

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