The most logical solution to feral cat problem
By Diane Novak
Trap Neuter Return, or TNR, has been the subject of many heated discussions in the last several decades. To understand this subject more clearly, we need to understand how the feral/stray phenomenon began. When faced with a move, some cat owners chose to leave their pets behind instead of surrendering them to shelters. Others drove their pets to distant locations and dumped them. More often than not, these cats were also unsterilized.
If the cat was lucky, it was abandoned near a restaurant or found other strays to show it a food source. Eventually these abandoned cats became pregnant and produced anywhere from two to six kittens. Since cats are pregnant for 63 days and can breed at around five and a half months, you can see how the numbers grew exponentially.
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Novak, of Hardy, is the founder of Barn Cat Buddies.
March 18, 2013 - 6:15 AM
Another compelling and persuasive article by Diane Novak with excellent information about TNR. I urge all our area municipalities, animal control officers and shelters to seriously give this solution the serious consideration it deserves with hopes that they see the sense of it and adopt this policy.
TNR would solve the problem off over breeding in cats…no if, ands and buts about it. If the general public would just educate themselves and their children, we could resolve this problem in our generation. Otherwise, our shelters will continue to be overloaded and animals will still get killed every single day. As a nation, we are better than this!!!! We need to make these steps to insure a NO KILL nation for the next generation.