What is a Community Street Cat?

“Community Street Cat” is a term used to describe outdoor, un-owned, free-roaming cats. These cats can be friendly, feral, adults, kittens, healthy, altered and/or unaltered. They may or may not have a caretaker. A caretaker is a person who conducts Trap-Neuter-Return and provides care to a community cat. By this definition, the only outdoor free-roaming cats who are not community cats are those who have an owner. Community cats can live contentedly outdoors for many years.

What is TNR (Trap-Neuter- Return)?

TNR is accomplished in 4 steps:

1. Trap - volunteers and community members humanely trap cats and transport them
to veterinary clinics who work with and understand the needs of this population of cats.
2. Neuter - cats are spayed or neutered, vaccinated, dewormed, flea treatment and microchipped along with having an ear tipped for easy field identification of cats that have already been surgically altered within a group.
3. Return - after medical services are received, they are returned to the location where they were trapped and often have dedicated feeders and colony caretakers, whether this is a volunteer, business owner or resident where the cats were residing.
4. Educate - the final step is to train community members when they are open to learning to how to continue the process of TNR in their community to maintain their cat colony in the future.

Why TNR Works

TNR has been shown to be the most humane, efficient way of stabilizing community cat
populations. By sterilizing at least 75% of cats in a group within a six-month period (and continuing to sterilize at least 75% of the remaining intact cats), TNR helps to stabilize the population of community cats and, over time, reduce the number of cats. As a result the number of unwanted litters of kittens entering our local shelters decreases, reducing undue burdens on the shelters and the needless suffering of kittens born on the streets.

Request Assistance with TNR

Have a cat situation at your location? We may be able to help. We are a small dedicated team of volunteers focused on ending the cycle of breeding for homeless cats living in Monterey County (with a focus on the city of Salinas). Submit a request and we will get in touch to see how we can assist in your situation.

Request Assistance