NYC Successfully Reducing Number Of Stray Cats -- Without Killing Them

Despite claims that the non-lethal method of trapping, neutering and returning feral cats to the streets does not successfully reduce the size of stray populations, the practice is taking hold in an area with one of the highest concentrations of homeless felines in the country: New York City. According to the New York Times, an army of nearly 5,500 volunteers is bringing TNR to the Big Apple, and so far it seems to be working:

In the past the city tended to deal with free-roaming cats by launching periodic roundups and taking cats to shelters to be adopted or, more likely, to be euthanized. But that did not make much of a dent in the population, according to animal advocates...

But three years ago the city shifted to a new approach to control stray cats that relies on volunteers trained to trap, neuter and then return them to their colonies in the neighborhoods they came from. Volunteers care for the cats, providing them food and water. Advocates say the tactic is contributing to a decrease in the number of stray cats in the city. The new strategy is gaining popularity across the country and in New York training classes fill up quickly...

There are no reliable estimates about the total number of stray cats in New York. But [the organization] Neighborhood Cats, which keeps a database of more than 2,000 stray cat colonies, says that cat populations have gone down in well-managed colonies, helping to alleviate the population overall.

Euthanasia rates for stray cats have also begun to drop in the city as well, experiencing a 63 percent drop since 2009.

Photo by Trevor Cook.