Feral Cat Resources Trap/neuter/return, managing a
colony, getting support from your
community, vet care, and more.
Feral Cats
The Right Way
Best Friends Animal Society endorses and practices trap/neuter/return (T/N/R) as the most humane and effective way to manage feral cats.
While euthanizing a suffering animal is an act of kindness, killing healthy feral cats, when the life-saving alternative of trap/neuter/return exists, demonstrates a lack of respect for their most basic rights.
T/N/R - part of the no-kill movement
There is a tremendous amount of grassroots support for trap/neuter/return, which is now practiced by thousands of humane groups and animal welfare advocates, and embraced by hundreds of communities across the country.
But some of the nation's older humane organizations still advocate killing feral cats.
Some of them argue that killing them protects them from possible future misfortune! But that argument is the thin end of a very nasty and dangerous wedge!
These organizations need to learn about the modern approach of T/N/R, and reconsider their own outdated policies. An outcome of these old policies is that they are still used as a reference by many government bureaucracies. The recent decision made by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWCC) to kill feral cats found anywhere on public property demonstrates the need for leadership in this area as well as better public education.
Beware of these current but very outdated statements by some of the older humane organizations.
Best Friends, along with Alley Cat Allies, the nation's leading feral cat care group, entirely rejects the policies of the following organizations:
The Humane Society of the United States believes that every community has a legal and ethical responsibility to address problems associated with free-roaming domestic cats.
The HSUS recognizes that, in many instances, free-roaming cats must be live-trapped and, after completion of the mandatory holding period, evaluated for adoption or euthanasia.
American Humane strongly supports policies and programs that work to reduce the overpopulation and abandonment of cats in a humane manner. In some cases, the most humane solution is euthanasia.
Please do not allow the prospect of euthanasia to deter you from trapping cats. If you leave them where they are, they will almost certainly die a painful death. A painless injection is far kinder than any fate that feral cats will meet if left to survive on their own.
What do vets think?
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has guidelines on feral cat management that include TNR.
In their guidelines, the AVMA recommends a resource network for feral cat care givers, humane activists, veterinarians, public health officials, and animal control officers should be established to share information, perspectives, and cooperative solutions to the root causes of animal abandonment.
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