Community cats are typically un-owned or semi-owned cats, comprised of both strays (lost and abandoned former pets who may be suitable for home environments) and ferals (extremely fearful of people and not welcoming of human attention, making them unsuitable for home environments), who are the offspring of other feral or stray cats. Some community cats can be considered loosely owned, meaning that concerned residents feed them and may provide some form of shelter in their own homes or on their own property, but do not always identify the cats as their own personal pets.*
Trap and remove may appear to be a logical approach. However, unless it is consistently performed with very high levels of resources and manpower and addresses over 50% of a targeted population, it doesn’t offset the root of the problem: ongoing reproduction of un-trapped cats.*
The borough has partnered with No Nonsense Neutering in their TNR program. Residents may obtain vouchers from the borough office to go towards the cost of the spay-neuter fee, once the appointment has been scheduled. Voucher recipients would be responsible for the $15 copayment. Visit http://www.nnnlv.org or call 1-866-820-2510, ext. 3 to schedule an appointment.
Humane deterrents to discourage cats from your property can be found at: https://www.alleycat.org/community-cat-care/humane-deterrents/.
Visit Shoey Strays on Facebook to link with residents involved in the TNR of cats in the borough.
*ICMA Managing Community Cats
