LORANE, Ore. — Feb. 26 is World Spay Day, which brings awareness about pet overpopulation.
In Lane County alone, there are an estimated 20,000 feral cats. But a trap, neuter and release program is working to get the population in check.
At Rick Hughes’ home in Lorane, he takes care of 17 feral cats.
“I’m a pet person. They love me so,” Hughes said.
He’s actually a dog lover. The cats came by chance. It started with two, and then he found a cat with a liter. He says a couple of years ago it got out of hand.
Hughes contacted Greenhill Humane Society about its trap, neuter and release program. Greenhill provided traps and let Hughes know which day to bring in feral cats to be spayed or neutered.
It takes patience to trap the cats, but for Hughes it’s the right option. When he notices new cats, he contacts Greenhill for a TNR appointment. Once approved, he traps them and brings them to Greenhill.
Greenhill has provided the service free of charge for four years thanks to a grant from PetSmart charities.
“On the days that we do the feral cat TNR, we can do up to 10 a day,” said Jaclyn Semple, Greenhill Assistant Director.
They can do up to 40 in a week, in addition to other pets at the shelter. All total, Greenhill performs over 3,000 surgeries a year in an effort to reduce pet overpopulation.
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Woodsman says:
February 26, 2013 at 10:39 pm (UTC -7)
20,000 cats? According to population-growth calculus, and GREATLY underestimating by having them breed only 2X’s per year, not the 3X-4X’s they are capable of, with only a 50% survival rate; in ONE YEAR you will have a GREATLY UNDERESTIMATED 130,500 feral cats running around.
So this means that on average 307.2 cats are being born PER DAY from your present stray-cat population numbers. You MUST trap and sterilize AT LEAST 307.2 cats PER DAY just to remain at the same rate they breed, and do this INTO PERPETUITY.
You MUST trap MORE THAN 307.2 cats PER DAY to start to surpass the rate at which they breed.
The average cost to TNR is $120-$170 nationwide (field-work, vets, supplies, transport, etc.), so your community MUST divert resources of man-hours and costs averaging at $43,008.00 PER DAY ($15,697,920.00 per year), JUST TO MATCH THEIR BREEDING RATES. (Keeping in mind that this is a GREATLY UNDERESTIMATED number.)
Those .22′s on in the hunting department are starting to look pretty good at the price of $0.03-$0.05 per cat, now aren’t they. Most communities realize this once they do the math. That’s what I used to get rid of hundreds of their cats on my lands over 3 years ago, hundreds of them all for less than the price of a couple cups of coffee (.22s on close-out sale at 3 cats per penny) — and I’ve not seen even ONE cat since. TNR-advocates’ “vacuum effect” is also just another manipulative and bald-faced deception and LIE.
For further info on how you are being deceived, manipulated, and lied to by TNR-advocates, Google for (include quotes): “The TNR Con-Game”
Woodsman says:
February 26, 2013 at 10:47 pm (UTC -7)
The ONLY veterinarians (and groups) that support and condone the COMPLETELY INHUMANE practice of TNR are those that financially benefit from all the hundreds of thousands of dollars that PetSmart charities hand out as “seed money” cash-grants and pleas for donations by exploiting suffering animals. The more suffering cat-mouths that they can all keep alive the more that they all benefit financially. This is ONLY about the money that they can all make by letting more cats and animals suffer. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HUMANE NOR ECOLOGICALLY CORRECT ABOUT TNR. Veterinarians (and all others) with the least bit of credible education (and morality) speak out strongly AGAINST TNR. I suggest you educate yourselves as well about this morally reprehensible TNR “business”.