This is the best single exposition on the management of community cats I've read. Thank you, Ed, you made it clear for me (and, I hope, for many others)! I hope Orange County takes your recommendations to heart.
Thank you, M, for the kind words! I'm grateful you found the article valuable and clear. Community cat management can be a complex topic with many legal and scientific dimensions, so I'm delighted to hear it resonated with you.
I share your hope that OC officials will consider implementing an authentic, high-intensity TNR program. The potential benefits for the cats, our shelters, and the community are too significant to ignore.
Thanks again for taking the time to read and comment. Your support means a great deal to me and helps amplify this important message.
Except the link you provide for the definition of a community cat is: "'Community Cats' is a term used to describe outdoor, unowned, free-roaming cats. These cats can be friendly, feral, adults, kittens, healthy, sick, altered and/or unaltered. They may or may not have a caretaker." They are not, by definition, unsocialized. The definition of community cat our organization uses is in line with "unowned, free-roaming, outdoor cat." In my experience, the community cats are cared for by multiple people, giving the cats different names, observing different personality traits in the same cat. These cared for, and cared about, cats have a home. It's an outside home, but they have a home. They don't need to go to the shelter. At least, not around here. They will overcrowd the shelter and cause more euthanasia. Y'all act like there is some magical new shelter system that can absorb all the community cats and still not increase killing at the shelters. All I can say, is thank god that ruling has absolutely zero influence on how we humanely manage our community cat populations in Indiana.
Thank you for catching that, Kerryann! The ASPCA must have changed their definition to align with the San Diego Humane Society. This is how the Consortium collaborates. I have removed that link. Thanks again.
those of us running a TNR program day-to-day, out in the field, talking with our neighbors, friends, community memebres, all seems to use the same definition. I relize you have a beef wit the Consortium, but don't invalidate the work of all the people doing the actual work.
This is the best single exposition on the management of community cats I've read. Thank you, Ed, you made it clear for me (and, I hope, for many others)! I hope Orange County takes your recommendations to heart.
Thank you, M, for the kind words! I'm grateful you found the article valuable and clear. Community cat management can be a complex topic with many legal and scientific dimensions, so I'm delighted to hear it resonated with you.
I share your hope that OC officials will consider implementing an authentic, high-intensity TNR program. The potential benefits for the cats, our shelters, and the community are too significant to ignore.
Thanks again for taking the time to read and comment. Your support means a great deal to me and helps amplify this important message.
Except the link you provide for the definition of a community cat is: "'Community Cats' is a term used to describe outdoor, unowned, free-roaming cats. These cats can be friendly, feral, adults, kittens, healthy, sick, altered and/or unaltered. They may or may not have a caretaker." They are not, by definition, unsocialized. The definition of community cat our organization uses is in line with "unowned, free-roaming, outdoor cat." In my experience, the community cats are cared for by multiple people, giving the cats different names, observing different personality traits in the same cat. These cared for, and cared about, cats have a home. It's an outside home, but they have a home. They don't need to go to the shelter. At least, not around here. They will overcrowd the shelter and cause more euthanasia. Y'all act like there is some magical new shelter system that can absorb all the community cats and still not increase killing at the shelters. All I can say, is thank god that ruling has absolutely zero influence on how we humanely manage our community cat populations in Indiana.
Thank you for catching that, Kerryann! The ASPCA must have changed their definition to align with the San Diego Humane Society. This is how the Consortium collaborates. I have removed that link. Thanks again.
those of us running a TNR program day-to-day, out in the field, talking with our neighbors, friends, community memebres, all seems to use the same definition. I relize you have a beef wit the Consortium, but don't invalidate the work of all the people doing the actual work.
TNRM -