Trap Neuter Release: Dollars, But No Sense

Trap Neuter Release: Dollars, But No Sense

By Linda Winter

The practice of Trap/Neuter/Release (TNR) to allegedly “manage” un owned cats is on the rise in the United States. TNR programs now exist in at least 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Some counties, such as Santa Cruz in California and Palm Beach in Florida, even have ordinances that legalize the practice, while the Animal Control Department of the City of Cape May, New Jersey actively traps and then sterilizes cats for release. Scientists estimate that free-roaming cats kill hundreds of millions of birds in the U.S. each year.

One of the largest TNR efforts has been in California. From 1999 to 2002, Maddie’s Fund gave $9.5 million to the California Veterinary Medical Association to reimburse 1,116 veterinarians who spayed or neutered 170,334 unowned cats for release. The California Department of Fish and Game was not consulted, nor were the cat feeders instruct-ed to avoid releasing cats in or near sensitive wildlife areas. The majority of California’s rare birds, including the Western Snowy Plover, California Clapper Rail, and California Least Tern, are vulnerable to cat predation. Historically, California Quail were abundant in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco when cats were controlled, but since the early 1990s, when TNR was allowed, the Park’s quail population has been decimated.

In Florida, free-roaming cats threaten rare species such as the Florida Scrub Jay and Least Tern, yet Brevard County legalized TNR in 1999, and has given more than $100,000 in government funds to the Space Coast Feline Network to pay for the spay/neuter of more than 2,000 cats for release. After three years of legalized TNR, the stray cat population in Brevard County grew to an estimated 200,000 cats, and a Feral Cat Advisory Committee was formed. However, the committee disbanded without making any recommendations to the county commissioners because the pro-TNR members would not compromise or be held more account-able for their actions. Incredibly, their intransigence was recently rewarded when the commissioners granted yet another $25,000 to continue the TNR efforts.

More than just being misguided, TNR may not even be legal. Former University of Florida law student Pamela Jo Hatley, commissioned by FWS, conducted a thorough review of wildlife protection and animal cruelty laws. Hatley concluded that TNR violates the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Endangered Species Act, and Florida state laws prohibiting abandonment and release of non-native animals (see www.law.ufl.edu/conservation/projects/projects_u_feralcats.shtml).

ABC believes that a more cost-effective and legal alternative that protects native wildlife and the cats exists in the form of fully enclosed sanctuaries on private property, such as those at Best Friends, Utah (www.bestfriends.org/sanctuary/wildcatsfrm.htm), Rikki’s Refuge, Virginia (www.rikkisrefuge.org), and the Humane Society of Ocean City, New Jersey (www.petfinder.org/shelters/hsoc.html). These sanctuaries keep the cats safe, well-fed, and sheltered, with access to routine veterinary care, and prevent the cats from harming birds and other wildlife. Contact: Linda Winter, ABC, <lwinter@abcbirds.org>.