Although it’s common to hear that cats have 9 lives, giving a cat one good, full life is what we all desire. Sadly, animal advocates estimate that between 1.5 and 2 million cats are euthanized every year. Many of them may be feral, or free roaming community cats that are considered to be unadoptable. Cities and towns all over the United States regularly pick up these cats that are often considered a nuisance and they are euthanized as a result. There is a solution that many cat advocates support.
Have you heard of TNR or TNVR? If you haven’t, you are among the 95% of the population that hasn’t! TNR stands for Trap-Neuter-Return, also known as trap-neuter-vaccinate-return TNVR. In the book Community Cats: A Journey into the World of Feral Cats, by Anne Beall, only 5% of people in the United States had heard of and were very familiar with TNR (Beall, 2015). These programs are now running nationwide and feral, or community cats, are trapped, transported, spayed, neutered, vaccinated and returned to their outside homes, often in what is called a colony. During this process, any friendly cats that might have been abandoned or have gotten lost are rescued and put up for adoption. Most kittens are fostered and socialized until they have become tamer and less fearful of humans, then they too, are adopted.
Those remaining community cats that are beyond socializing are returned to the area they were found and are then fed, sheltered and protected by caretakers to the best of their ability. Keeping feral cats out of shelters not only saves their lives, but it also saves the lives of adoptable cats by not taking space in shelters that have too few spaces to accommodate the large unwanted cat population already.
With this all in mind, Community Cat Movement was created and launched on January 1, 2016. The mission of Community Cat Movement is to bring knowledge of the most effective community cat management solution (TNVR) to the 95% of the population that hasn’t heard of it, through education, support, advocacy and all manner of volunteer work, in order to prevent more homeless cats, improve the overall acceptance and treatment of community cats, and to look to this option for more ‘no kill’ shelters.
If you want to help us save cats’ lives, we need you to help us get the message out about TNR. Our work in this Movement is to educate as much of the remaining 95% as possible. The more people we get on board, the more acceptable community cats and TNVR becomes, and the more cats who will be saved.
If you have a Facebook account, share information there. If you have a Twitter account, tweet information. Whatever social media is your favorite, use it as a vehicle to better inform our general public. As much as we need help trapping, transporting and caretaking, we also need “arm chair warriors” who can help posting a variety of materials on different sites. We need people willing to write articles, petitions, and to share their stories of their experiences, tips on different topics, etc. Please consider becoming part of the Community Cat Movement! Be the change!
Community Cat Movement
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Community-Cat-Movement-1…/timeline…
Twitter CommCatMovement
Website: www.communitycatmovement.org
