People may be most familiar with the city of Wake Forest, North Carolina because of the same-named University or one of their NCAA sports teams - the "Demon Deacons" as they are known always are a powerhouse.
Well now the city of Wake Forest has another 'claim to fame', as reported in the Vox Felina blog, it has now officially adopted Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) as its official policy! Money quote from the blog post:
Wake County, NC, has officially adopted TNR!
According to a story in Monday’s Raleigh Public Record, the new policy allows private non-profits to manage the trapping, sterilization, and vaccination of community cats. And, in what was apparently an eleventh-hour victory, TNR supporters (led, as I understand it, by SPCA of Wake County) won additional protections for these cats. “The county will not be able to trap such cats simply for roaming at-large,” notes the paper.
This blog posting was sourced from a Raleigh, NC, newspaper which reported that:
Between summer 2010 and 2011, the county-run animal shelter took in 7,766 cats. Of those, 4,830 cats were euthanized, according to county data. That number includes all of the roughly 2,900 feral cats that were taken in, since they are deemed unadoptable, according to information presented to county commissioners.
The current policy of euthanizing cats has not reduced the number of calls regarding feral cats to county animal control, county staff reports, which has lead to the search for new options.
Well, duh...
It's good to see yet another community adopting TNR - the word IS spreading...