Feral Cat Supporters,
Since this is my first “Message from the President”, please bear with me!
We have had a wonderful first year, accomplished much! Look for details on our website!
If you have found your way to this website, you probably know the basics about feral cats, and that information will also be given elsewhere. But there is much more to feral cats than a definition and a description and how-to. Practicing TNR is so much more than putting out a trap and transporting the cat to the spay/neuter clinic.
In order to practice and promote TNR, one must develop the inter-personal skills that do not come easily to many animal-lovers. Many times you will hear in rescue – “I do animals because I like them better.” Well, to help the animals one must deal with the humans, too! While it may sometimes be an enormous challenge to convince a caretaker that TNR is the best answer for the cats that they care for, there are many people who are just waiting to hear that our organization exists and are extremely grateful for any help we can give them. Sometimes, just finding out that low-cost spay/neuter exists is enough to catapult them into TNRing their own ferals and then assisting with the TNR of their neighborhood and beyond. This is indescribably rewarding to us, as it means that the health and well-being of so many more ferals are impacted.
One must keep in mind the number of cats that are euthanized each and every day at animal controls and “kill” shelters. This is due to the sheer volume of cats that are out there reproducing. There simply are not enough homes to support the number of cats being born each and every day. You will never see our organization talk against the people who are forced to euthanize animals. You will see us talk about spaying and neutering every cat we can get our hands on. We want to help create a world in which every cat is wanted.
We hope to change local feral cat ordinances and where none regarding feral cats exist, create new ordinances. This is a slow process, it requires actually doing TNR, proving that TNR is an effective method of reducing feral cat populations, reducing the number of cats overcrowding our shelters and reducing the total number of cats euthanized as a result. It involves educating your neighbor, your local politicians and police departments and shaking them free of the old notions of trap and kill – which has proven to be ineffective. This method has a high monetary cost, while having a high cost in human emotions as well – not only from the animal control employees, but the people who are forced to surrender that batch of kittens they found in their window well, knowing those kittens may not survive due to the sheer numbers that cannot find homes.
I wanted to be brief and informative, but would like to end with a request:
If you can volunteer to help our organization in any way – please notify us. We need people who can do a variety of things – just tell us your skills, we will find a way to use you. Not everything we do involves hands-on with the ferals. We need toting and fetching, creativity, community outreach, you may know the person we need to talk to in order to bring an entire community to TNR.
Thank you so much for interest in and for caring about feral cats!
Let’s all work together to make every cat healthy, neutered and wanted, whether inside or outside!
Tammy McAuley
Feral Fixers President