Community Cats Support
"Have your pets spayed or neutered." - Bob Barker
Community Cats are free-roaming, unowned (but often cared for) cats who live outside. They can be friendly or feral (not socialized to people). Often, members of the community care for these cats by placing food and water outside and providing the managed colony with shelter and protection. Outdoors is their home and these cats would be unhappy anywhere else.
The benefits of a managed Community Cat population in your neighborhood are plenty, including free and environmentally-friendly rodent control and comradery between neighbors. However, when there are too many cats or they are not spayed or neutered, it can become overwhelming for a neighborhood.
If you love ‘em or you hate ‘em, Spaying and neutering is the ONLY effective and humane strategy for managing a Community Cat population. In the animal world, This solution is called TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return). Some people want to get rid of all the cats, but that just creates a void of resources (cats live in your neighborhood because they can survive there!) and new cats will move in. Spaying and neutering will reduce fights, spraying, and an overabundance of cats.
Trap
Community Cats are often hard to catch. You can purchase humane traps like these:
Neuter
At Cincinnati Animal CARE, we work with Ohio Alleycat Resource and UCAN to spay and neuter community cats.
Hamilton County residents may call Ohio Alleycat Resource or UCAN to schedule an appointment themselves.
Return
Safely returning the cat back to their neighborhood and home where they can live reproduction free is the final step! This is how to set your trap and release the cat after surgery:
