The Surprisingly Effective Best Way To Manage Cat Colonies

Spaying and neutering has been the first line of defense against dog and cat overpopulation for decades. Sterilization drastically reduces the number of animals being euthanized in shelters and allows our pets to live longer, happier lives. On World Spay Day, we get to celebrate how far we have come in improving animal health and welfare. We can use this time to continue educating people on how spaying and neutering dogs and cats is the best option for their pets and for collective animal health.

Operation Catnip Stillwater (OCS) is one of many organizations around the country that uses spay/neuter as a tool to manage "community" cat populations. Community cats are unowned and sometimes feral cats, who have established breeding populations in our communities' habitats, from commercial downtown areas to parks and natural spaces. Since these cats have no natural predators and most of them get supplemental food from concerned citizens, they will breed uncontrollably, if allowed, until they become so crowded that they fall victim to increased aggression and disease. These uncontrolled cat populations become colonies and can impact area wildlife, environmental quality, and the ambiance and atmosphere of commercial and tourist areas.

Operation Catnip Stillwater employs "trap-neuter-return," or TNR, as a strategy for these situations. TNR programs humanely catch cats in cage-like traps, spay females and neuter males, and often provide other care. OCS administers rabies vaccinations, flea control, pain medication, and provides other surgery as needed, like wound repair. After an overnight recovery in a safe place, cats are returned to their original locations. TNR cats are now free to live their lives without producing more cats. They also show reduced aggression, which lowers the chance that diseases will be transferred from cat-to-cat, or from cat-to-person. TNR creates happier and healthier cats, communities and environments.

It is easy to think that trapping and removing cats would do a better job of controlling populations than TNR, but this ends up not being the case. Cats have populated niches in our environments, and when we remove them, we create openings in these niches. The only animals in these environments that breed fast enough to fill these voids are cats, so the remaining cats in these areas just have more kittens to fill the space. It's hard to trap them fast enough to keep up. However, when we release spayed and neutered cats back into the environment, they keep niches full, lower breeding rates, and create a calmer, less-aggressive colony atmosphere. The results may be revealed slower, but TNR is a more permanently effective approach to lowering cat populations in colonized areas.

Dedicated professionals and volunteers work year-round to provide spay/neuter services like TNR to keep animals healthy and safe. However, events like World Spay Day give us a targeted way to share our passion about the importance of spaying and neutering not just owned pets, but unowned animals as well. Support from The Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association allowed Operation Catnip Stillwater to hold a World Spay Day event this year where we spayed and neutered 89 community cats. World Spay Day is a valuable event, and empowers everyone to help animals in need.

Jacqueline Paritte, Oklahoma State University Vet Med '15
Alexandra Portanova, Oklahoma State University Vet Med '16 Jacqueline Paritte is a fourth-year veterinary student at Oklahoma State University. Alexandra Portanova is a third-year student at Oklahoma State University. Both are students members of HSVMA and dedicated volunteers at Operation Catnip Stillwater and participated in their World Spay Day TNR clinic on Feb. 8, 2015.