Tnr?

staceyloobug

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Hey guys, I'm REALLY new to the whole TNR idea.

We bought our first home (yay!), but realized over the winter that there is what seems to be a colony of cats on our street. Our street (only 8 houses, on a dead-end road) is RIGHT next to one of the busiest highways in the US (I-70), and on the other side, one of the busiest streets in town. This is not a place for cats to be outside, feral or not.

They're getting into garbage, driving our cats nuts (through the windows), etc. And these are FERALS. They won't come near us even if we have food. We've tried.

So, I was going to call someone who I know does cat rescue, but these cats most likely can't be adopted. I want to look out for the best of the entire neighborhood (it's stressful to see these cats all the time and know they are probably making MORE cats, you know?), but at the same time, if trapping them means they will be euthanized when they go to the shelter, that's something big to have on my shoulders, too.

I'm not sure our town has a TNR program (please forgive me for saying this, but we're in a somewhat rural state, where if you have a problem animal, you get your shotgun, sadly), but I know there are at LEAST 7 cats (I think it was a mom and her now teen children, as 4 of them are all black and they hang around with the female), and I can't afford $700 to spay/neuter these animals (to have mine done was over $200, but I had the bloodwork done, the catheter, etc) on my own.

ALSO, I don't know where they'd release them. And then there's the task of going door-to-door to make sure these aren't someone's "pets," even though they're clearly NOT pets, you know? You never know. I know they are living under my neighbor's porch (they slip through the cinder blocks).

*sigh* I just am at a loss, because I feel responsible just for knowing there's no way they are neutered, but at the same time, I don't know how the whole thing works. I want to do right by the neighborhood, and if possible, the cats, who aren't doing anything WRONG -- they don't know any better.

And P.S. I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, I'm not sure which area of the forum it should be in.
 

taryn

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Most TNR are done by low cost services. I paid over $200 to get Attitude done by my vet. I paid $35 each for Goldie, Biter and Mama and I paid $20(the actual spay was $5, I paid the extra $15 so she could get a pain shot post-surgery) for Half-tail. Now, would I love to be able to fork over the money to have all of them done by my vet? Yes, of course, but I can't afford that, I can't even afford to get Nuts done. I'm not sure what there is in WV I'm sure someone else will be able to direct you on where to look but they need to be fixed. You trap them take them in for surgery then release them right back where you found them. This is their home and where they are most comfortable and they know the area, they shouldn't get into any trouble with cars, I doubt they would even go near the freeway, mine won't even go to the road up the street which is slightly busier than ours(the most common cars to go up the street(other than people who live here obviously) are cop cars and that's because they can sit in the circle at the end of the road and do nothing(not that there is anything to do around here anyways.)

I wouldn't care if they were anyone's pet I'd get them done anyways because their owners obviously don't take care of them.

They need to be done fixed but honestly they aren't hurting anyone being there.

Your neighbor obviously doesn't care(and might even be feeding the cats, I feed ours) that the cats are there and honestly if someone trapped my outside ones and shipped them off to a rescue to be killed I'd be livid. I know them all by name and I notice if someone is missing and if everyone suddenly disappears them I'll have problems with people. Trap them, get them fixed then return them back to where they came from. They are not hurting anyone and they have been there long before you have. Any of them 'stupid' enough to play in traffic didn't last long. They know the area and the freeway isn't included in their area.

Taryn
 
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staceyloobug

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Thank you both so much!

You're right. No matter if they ARE someone's cats, they need to be fixed.

I'm going to call a guy I used to live next to. He helps the local shelter trap and neuter/find homes for them. I will tell him exactly what's going on, and say they need to be neutered, and since they are PROBABLY non-adoptable, they should be released back here.

Thanks also for the links. They are all pretty far from where I'm at (Wheeling, WV), but I did see a few for Pittsburgh, which is an hour from here. I'll use that as a last resort, but I'll check with the guy I used to live next to first to see if he knows somewhere local. He's very active with catching ferals and helping them, so he should be a good resource.

I was hoping HE would do this, because I don't know if I emotionally can be trapping and getting "attached" to these cats, but if he won't, SOMEONE has to. It's my neighborhood, too.

If I can find somewhere to do it for $50 a pop, I could try to do a little fundraising. Do you think I should talk to the neighbors about it or just start on my own?
 

momofmany

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A lot of small rescue groups that do TNR do not advertise in a phone book. If you want to find all of the rescue groups in your area, go into www.petfinder.com and do a search for cats in the vicinity of your zip code. When the cats are displayed, you will see the rescue group to the right of the cat. You can click on their link and see how you can contact them.

I would call everyone in your area and explain your situation. They won't undertake a TNR effort unless they have a caretaker for the colony. Some only loan traps and don't trap them themselves. Some will loan a trap to you and then transport the animal for the speuter. Some will ask one of their own volunteers to go out and feed the cats, but it will go a long way if you are willing to feed them. Some groups will donate food to feral colony caretakers. Everyone is different depending on the resources available to them. No kill shelters typically go a lot further to help with TNR than kill shelters.

They questions you want to ask:

- Will they do the TNR for these cats?
- Will they provide a caretaker or can they donate food to you so that you can be their caretaker?
- If they can't afford the TNR, can they loan you a trap and refer you to their low cost vet clinics?
- If you trap, can someone come out and explain the protocol of trapping? (we can help here if it comes to that)
 

ldg

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Not knowing your neighbors or their attitudes, it's hard to say.

We live in a very rural area of NJ. When we first moved here and encoutered feral cats, we got to chatting with someone and found out they were planning to put out poison to kill the cats.
We talked to him for a bit about the advantage of having cats around (help control rodent population) - it never occurred to him that there was a way to control the cat population explosion. We did the trapping (and he'd call when a cat was in the trap and we'd run them out to be neutered) - and so we decided to go around to all the farmers around here to talk to them about cats on their property (and to look for barns for cats that needed a place to be released).

There were varying attitudes, but some decided to do the trapping on their own (and we know from the neuter place they followed through).

So... some we paid for, some the property owners did the work and paid for, and others the property owners chipped in.

But educating the neighborhood about the benefits of trap-neuter-release is certainly important to the cats, even if they don't want to help pay for it. You could do it under the guise of finding out if the cats belong to anyone.

...but this way you've also got the neighbors on the look out for cats whose ears haven't been tipped so you know if there are more cats that need to be neutered.

I think it's wonderful of you to want to help the cats!

If you want to learn more about TNR or print out brochures for your neighbors, these sites are helpful:

http://www.alleycat.org
http://www.bestfriends.org
http://www.neighborhoodcats.org
http://www.straypetadvocacy.org

Also, since hissy didn't know where in WV you lived, you can see if there's anything closer to you by googling "low cost neuter" combined with the name of your County or larger cities/towns that are neary you.
 
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