feral cat education and assistance
What is a Feral Cat?
A feral cat avoids human contact either because it has lived his/her whole life with little or no human contact or is a stray cat who was lost or abandoned and has lived away from human contact long enough to revert to a wild state.
What is TNR?
A group of feral cats living together in one area is called a "colony." Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is an effective, internationally recognized program to reduce, and eventually eliminate, feral cat colonies. This program is sometimes referred to as Trap-Alter-Return (TAR).
Cats are trapped, vaccinated, spayed or neutered, and returned to their original location. Kittens and friendly adults are adopted into good homes.
In a TNR program, the feral cat colony caregiver continues to feed the cats on a regular basis and brings them to a veterinarian if they require medical assistance. The result, including any new cats entering the colony, is known as a managed feral cat colony.
AC&A Feral Cat Education and Assistance
What We Do
- We teach the basics of TNR (trap, neuter/spay, and return) for feral and hard stray cats that are not adoptable
- We teach the basics of feral colony management
- We teach after-surgery care for feral cats
- We loan traps and recovery cages for a fully refundable deposit
- We provide information on low-cost spay/neuter for your feral cat(s)
- We provide short-term care to street cats for recovery after spay/neuter surgery (on an as space is available basis)
- If our barn cat program is at capacity, we will assist caregivers in searching for new homes for the and supervise the relocation of colonies of street cats living in areas that unsafe and/or scheduled for demolition
- We educate the public on the Trap/Neuter/Return program for feral cats
Links
Feral Cat Information and TNR: www.alleycat.org
Taming feral kittens: www.icraeastbay.org/ICRAKittenSocializing.pdf
Safe traps: www.livetrap.com
Feral Cat Yahoo Group: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/feral_cats/
