If you feel you know so much about this topic, then I guess I will see you volunteering at the next feral and stray spay and neuter clinic which happens tomorrow, smartypants ?
What I do know about this topic (rather a lot, actually, as both a cat lover and a conservationist) is precisely why you’ll never find me cooperating in the re-abandonment of homeless cats. Seriously, what kind of “cat lover” betrays them by dumping them back on the streets?
It costs more to house and care for that cat in a shelter for the minimum three days, then euthanize and dispose of the body than it does to have that cat neutered, vaccinated and returned to its original location.
Only when you don’t take into account the value of resources donated to TNR groups by vets and volunteers or underwritten by donors. You’ve also conveniently left the cost of maintenance and monitoring out of the equation, so you really are advocating Trap, Neuter, Re-Abandon.
There would be no TNR if these groups had to foot the entire bill for every single feral cat to be:
- trapped (traps cost ~$50 each, volunteer time is valued at ~$22/hr.)
- transported to a veterinarian ($0.14/mile deduction for charitable purposes + time at ~$22/hr.)
- spayed/neutered (one organization pays $50/male, $70/female)
- vaccinated and wormed (street value ~$40)
- treated for injuries and diseases (TNR organizations economize by euthanizing many sick/injured cats)
- transported back to the trap site (time + mileage)
- fed and monitored daily for the remaining weeks or months of its life (~$5/month/cat for cheap bulk food [not including losses to rodents, raccoons, skunks, etc.] + time + mileage)
- and retrapped, revaccinated, rewormed, etc. annually (should it survive that long).
When you multiply those costs by the estimated 50 million stray and feral cats in the U.S., the magnitude of the problem becomes clear.
Then there’s the costs to families, communities, and countries of injuries to pets and people from territorial feral cats, treatment of (and loss of life to) the diseases and parasites they transmit, contamination of the environment by their wastes, and loss of biological diversity as they prey on, compete with, and transmit deadly diseases and parasites to wildlife.
Regardless of whether the resources are donated or not, TNR is less humane and less effective than trapping cats for adoption, life in an enclosed sanctuary, or, failing that, euthanasia. TNR cats still live short, miserable lives during which they inflict pointless suffering and death on millions of other creatures, and they themselves die horrible deaths. The average TNR “colony” can only decline in size if the combination of sterilization and adoption is intensive enough to offset reproduction and immigration, and many “colonies” grow even faster post-TNR as they become attractive dumping grounds for socialized but unwanted cats. (Meanwhile, the majority of the approximately 2.7 million adoptable animals euthanized at shelters every year are dogs. Do you support TNR for dogs? If not, why not?)
TNR groups that are responsible and ethical have colony caretakers that commit to feeding at specific locations, and care for the colony cats on a daily basis. These cats are eartipped to mark them as spayed/neutered. Some groups micro-chip as well, so if the cat is injured, deceased or mistakenly taken to a shelter it can be returned to its caregiver.
Caretaker burnout is a huge problem for TNR groups, and the cost of microchip implantation adds another $10 to $50 per cat to the cost of TNR. (Does it bother you at all that many if not most neighbors of TNR projects don’t want their yards, neighborhoods, parks, etc. overrun by unsocialized cats?)
Instead of promoting animal misery, won’t you please join me in supporting enclosed sanctuaries as the only humane, responsible alternative to euthanasia, along with stronger licensing, sterilization, and leash laws for cats to attack the overpopulation problem at its source?
