Animal Advocates Get $16.5K Grant for Trap-Neuter-Return Program

By • Mar 4th, 2010 • Category: Blog, News

Companion Animal Trust and Hudson County Animal League have been awarded a $16,500 grant from PetSmart Charities to pay for spay/neuter costs associated with its Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program for feral cats. The Neighborhood Feral Cat Initiative, which is now entering its second year, aims to raise public awareness about the community feral cat crisis and to provide practical ways to deal with the issue by training residents in TNR procedures.

Feral cats, the wild untamed cats that roam around Jersey City’s neighborhoods, keep reproducing if left alone, leading to local colonies, which can create a neighborhood nuisance. But if the cats are taken by Animal Control, they are just killed, and other cats ultimately take over the territory.

The TNR process aims to break this cycle and keep cats alive. The cat is trapped (humanely, of course), then sent to a vet where it is spayed or neutered, vaccinated and tagged. The cat then is released back to its original area, where it and the other cats are managed by a volunteer caregiver. This helps keep the colony sizes down, reduces some of the aggressive behaviors that lead to nuisances like some spraying and fighting and helps overburdened urban shelters by keeping many of these cats out of their hands.

Since Companion Animal Trust launched the program, over 130 Hudson County residents have become TNR certified and 500 feral cats have been spayed and neutered.

“In 2009 we made great progress in gaining the community’s help in reducing the number of feral cats living on the streets,” Companion Animal Trust president Carol McNichol says. “With the help of PetSmart Charities, the low cost spay neuter funding is secured and in place for 2010 so we anticipate repeating the success of 2009.”

All workshop attendees will learn how to set up a managed cat colony, including dealing with the community; feeding, building and placing shelters; arranging vet care; safely handling feral cats; and trapping. All attendees become TNR certified, and Hudson County residents gain access to low cost spay/neuter and trap rentals.

The schedule for 2010′s Workshops is as follows (all workshops are held on Saturdays from noon to 3 pm in Downtown Jersey City):

  • March 13
  • April 17
  • May 15
  • June 12
  • July 17
  • Aug. 14
  • Sept. 18
  • Oct. 16
  • Nov. 13

Reservations are required. Call 201-884-9649 to reserve your seat.

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is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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  • Redbud

    If you would just stop feeding these cats they would disperse and die out on their own. TNR is based on perpetual colony maintenance; these cats NEVER go away. It’s the misguided people that insist on feeding outdoor cats that are the real problem.

  • Kristin

    It is an incredibly ill informed opinion to think that “If you would just stop feeding these cats they would disperse and die out on their own”. Besides the fact that this is completely incorrect, its a cruel action against a living creature. But if cruelty doesn’t bother you, get the facts straight.

    No one has to feed feral cats for them to survive, thrive, and reproduce generation after generation. Cats survive on rodents, birds and digging through garbage. So they won’t leave if you ‘stop feeding’ them. They will manage. And if someone feeds them, the cats will have a lesser impact on the local ecosystem and be less destructive (digging through garbage, etc).

    So TNR is just a humane response by people who care to help reduce the numbers of feral cats and lesser the impact they have in the neighborhoods they have decided to live in.

  • Redbud

    The cats are drawn to the artificial food source and the hunting instinct is separate from the hunger urge so our wildlife is not safe just because you feed cats. Remove all artificial food sources and the cats will disperse and eventually die out. I think that it is you that have to get your facts straight. You think it is cruel to let an introduced predatoy fend for itself but you have no problem letting your domestic cats loose to kill our native wildlife? This is the double standard that all TNR advocates seem to ignore. Cats first, cats last and cats only seems to be your motto and I find that unacceptable.
    TNR actually leads to MORE cats in an area due to the constant feeding by misguided people. This action draws cats from everywhere; strays, free roamers and dumped pets will congrgate around the artificial food source. TNR is based on perpetual colony maintenance and shoud never be encouraged. If you insist on keeping every cat alive then take them home with you and enclose them on your private property. I don’t want feral and free roaming cats on my property and I should have the right to keep them out.

  • Kristin

    I don’t let my cats outside and I also don’t believe that neutered feral cats will have NO impact on wildlife, but a much lesser impact on local wildlife if they are fed regularly (which is what I wrote in the first response).

    Feral cats will not disappear if you stop feeding them, the overwhelming majority of ‘feral cats’ are not routinely fed by humans, they survive on local wildlife and picking through garbage. They can live for weeks at a time on little to no food.

    So it is not a questions as to whether you “‘stop feeding feral cats and they’ll die off’ versus ‘trap-neuter-return”, it is between ‘trapping and euthanizing feral cats’ and ‘trap-neuter-return’ – I don’t believe either plans will totally eradicate feral cats in the long term but if you are going to trap them in either scenario, I believe it is more humane to fix the cat and release it. If you euthanize it instead, another feral cat will just come and take its place.

    Also, cities spend millions of dollars a year to deal with issues concerning animal overpopulation (which means you, as a taxpayer, foots that bill). Many times, concerned citizens donate their time and money to trap-neuter-return feral cat colonies. So they are reducing your tax bill doing a job that you would have to pay animal control to do.

    I think that if people are really interested in working towards reducing feral cats in their areas, they can google ‘feral cats’ or ‘trap-neuter-return’, read the opposing ideas about how to deal with feral cats and make the best decision possible.

  • Redbud

    All you do is repeat the same nonsense that all TNR advocates preach. Believe me, there is no “vacuum effect” with feral cats so no new cats will move into an area where cats have been removed unless there an artificial food source to attract them . Well fed cats continue to hunt (remember the separate brain areas for these) so our native wildlife is not safe from predation even if you feed them. If you remove the artificial food source (garbage is an artificial food source) the cats will disperse. Trap and remove is no more inhumane than TNR; same process but they do not wake up. TNRed cats wake up and are terrorized for days before they are reabandoned. I would say that trap and remove is much more humane than TNR. It’s the humans that can’t handle euthanasia.
    What about property rights? I don’t want free roaming or feral cats on my property and the TNR advocates refuse to take responsibility for their cats.
    Cats are the only domestic animal that humans allow to roam at will. Why is this? Cats are a domestic species with no habitat ourdoors. As I said before; if you must keep every cat alive, then take them home with you and enclose them on your private property. TNR is not for the catsa, it’s for the caregivers. Gives them a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Selfish is what I would call it, hoarding without walls.

  • http://nil mike kowalchuk

    the cats have nothing to do with this problem ,there is not a problem that has been started that has been the animals fault ,man has to do with starting everything and the animals are the ones that pay with there lives,the older that i get the more i hate the human activity.

  • Donna Randall

    Congratulations to Companion Animal Trust and Hudson County Animal League. We are active advocates of Trap-Neuter-Return and in the year since attending one of the first workshops, 10 feral cats that we inherited when we purchased our home have been through this program. Because of our efforts, we have prevented hundreds of births over the queens’ lifetimes. Some older cats and kittens born to feral queens have been trapped and socialized by us, with some remaining in our home and others adopted by loving families. At our own time and expense, we have chosen to handle the feral cat population in a manner that we consider the only humane way. We provide our colony shelter and food daily and will continue to do so, as well as Trap-Neuter-Return when new ferals wander into our yard.

    I would like to point out to Redbud that we did not feed the feral cats when we first moved into our home yet they remained in our yard and on our deck. They found their food elsewhere but considered our property their territory. Additionally, we have an active birdfeeder on the deck within striking distance of any cat that has the urge to hunt and to this day, no birds have been killed.

    Our main goal remains to prevent more cats from being born outside and are grateful that Companion Animal Trust has provided a solution for us.

  • Redbud

    Sorry Donna but you ARE the problem. Stop feeding the cats and secure your trash and the cats will disperse. All you have done is made a perfect place for people to dump their unwanted pets. Where do you think these strays are coming from??? You are attrcting them silly! I am sure that your cats have killed and mamed many birds and other small animals; just because you do not see the remains does not mean that it is not happening.
    Your main goal is to keep every cat alive as is every other TNR proponet’s. I only request that you respect my rights not to have cats and enclose your cats on your property.
    I spend lots of time and money trying to rehabilitate the animals your cats catch. It’s very sad to see the misery every day but it is one way I can give back to wildlife what you crazy cat advocates turn a blind eye towards. Double standard that I cannot tolerate. PLEASE, DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS IF YOU ARE ALSO FEEDING OUTDOOR CATS!!!! You have to be really dumb if you think your cats are not feasting on the birds.

  • Redbud

    I agree Mike. Join the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. “Everyone’s a winner at the end of the human race”.

  • Carol McNichol

    Here is an article in the American Bar Association newsletter that argues that killing cats won’t save the birds. http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Document.Doc?id=30

    Cats date back 8,000 – 10,000 years ago. It was only in the 1940s that cat litter was developed to allow cats to live indoors.

    Humans are the cause of bird loss. Not the cats. And unfortunately, the number one cause of death for cats in shelters is euthanasia also perpetrated by humans. And as you read above, you cannot kill one animal to save another. It is not ethically or morally correct.

    No animal advocate

  • Redbud

    Carol,

    Alley Cat Allies is a CAT organization; what woould you expect them to say????
    Cats are just another human cause of bird mortality. I understand that it is not the cat’s fault but we have to solve the problem and cats are the end result of stupid people owning pets.
    We should eliminate invasive species to save the natural environment. Cats are invasive and must be removed to restore balance.
    We have to listen to the wildlife experts not the cat fanatics. Science before emotions.
    TNRrealitycheck.com Educate yourself, you sound foolish.

  • Objective

    Redbud is just spouting the same misinformed TNRRealityCheck.net anti-cat venom, no matter scientific studies say. It astounds me that one person, Linda Cherkassky, can saturate the net, and newspapers around the country with a completely bogus anti-cat sentiment. Get a life, cat hater.

  • JWisner

    Thank you Kristin, Carl McNichol and Objective for “pouncing” on “Redbud”. The TNR program is as humane as it gets and I applaud PetSmart Charities for its actions.

  • JWisner

    Sorry “Carol”.

  • Redbud

    PetSmart makes lots and lots of money from cat food sales. Please cite a non-biased supporter. TNRrealitycheck.com is one of the only sites that uses science, not emotions, to back it’s claims. No anti-cat rhetoric just the facts. Much better than the false information that Alley Cat Allies provides.
    And to set the record straight; I do not hate cats I just do not want cats outdoors where they do not belong. Very simple idea that the crazy cat fanatics cannot get into their heads. Poor misguided souls……

  • Linda Cherkassky

    “Objective” – gee thanks for all the credit, but I am not Redbud, nor am I a cat hater. Opposing a method of management does not mean one opposes cats. If you care to do some actual research into this topic then start by reading the latest literature on this topic:

    http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/tnr.html

  • Birdy

    Rosebud, it would be great if you knew what you were talking about but you don’t. Study the subject before making your ill informed opinions known. You are really letting the world see your stubborn refusal to understand the facts about TNR. Not only does it work but this has been proven over and over. You are a cat hater and I suspect worse than that. Get off it already. Nobody needs this kind of negativity when people are working so hard to do good for the animals, the environment and their neighborhoods. Go find something positive and good to do. Maybe you’ll feel better.

    “We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
    ~ “The Outermost House”

    Henry Beston

    Author, Naturalist (1888-1968)

  • Loretka

    Yo, Redbud. First of all, I’m sure that feral cats are not on your property. Are they? Even though you don’t feed them? Secondly, the feral cats have just as much right to live as you do. And God bless the compassionate people that are doing so much to care for the feral cats. There is a colony of feral cats under the boardwalk in Atlantic City. They are well cared for by some kind people, they are beautiful, clean, and are very happy. Again, I say, feral cats have just as much right to live as you do. MAYBE IF YOU ARE NOT FED, YOU WILL GO
    AWAY ! ! Maybe you will disburse and die out.

  • Kathleen O’Malley

    I’m glad to see several sensible people weighing in alongside Kristin; that crank Redbud was getting way too much space. That’s the problem with message boards; cranks hiding behind nicknames and dragging out silly “he said/she said” debates. For anyone who really wants to know the state of knowledge about TNR, I encourage you to go to PubMed, the NLM’s wonderful database, and read a few of the many, many peer-reviewed scientific reports from veterinary journals, detailing how TNR has controlled feral cat populations around the world and cut down on the spread of disease, and how euthanization programs just don’t work because the “vacuum effect” is a fact. Scientists have spent years documenting this stuff. Just go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed and do a search. Your tax dollars well spent!

    There’s a particularly good Canadian study that cites several other articles supporting the effectiveness of TNR: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC339549/. A couple of papers do, unfortunately, show that TNR has not worked as hoped in certain areas, such as in Rome, Italy, but the researchers’ conclusion is that this is not a shortcoming of TNR but a problem of public education; i.e. people adding to the feral cat population by dumping sexually intact house cats. No studies suggest that feral cats will just die out if we do nothing. All of the scientific literature points to the ideas that TNR is more effective all around than traditional animal control (euthanization) and that the public needs to spay and neuter its pets so it won’t be tempted to dump unwanted kittens and pregnant cats.

    For pet owners who worry that spaying/neutering is too expensive, the Hudson County Animal League offers a low-cost spay/neuter program – call 201 200-1008; so does Liberty Humane (201-547-4147). For about $65 you can get a kitten or cat fixed and vaccinated, and we’ll all be happier in the long run.