Cape May - One of the first feral cat
colonies worked on in New Jersey provides an excellent example of the
positive impact of TNR Approximately 10 years ago, the city of Cape
May, previously inundated with feral complaints enacted a municipal
ordinance allowing feral feeding, the registration of feral colonies
and assisting feral feeders with a no-cost feral spay/neuter program.
Since that time, the incidence of feral-related nuisance complaints has
steadily decreased and is currently 80% reduced by the pre-program
levels.
John
Queenan, Animal Control Officer of Cape May City estimates in the past
10 years of the program, the city's feral population has been reduced
by approximately 50%. Presently no feral cats from Cape May City are
finding their way into the city or county shelter systems.
Atlantic
City - TNR has been successfully used, with municipal
approval, on the boardwalk area of Atlantic City. C.A.R., a coalition
of Alley Cat Allies, the Humane Society of Atlantic County, the Health
Department of Atlantic City and local volunteers, has used TNR to
successfully neuter and vaccinate the resident feral feline population.
Steve Dash, president of the Humane Society of Atlantic County and the
founder of the Atlantic City Boardwalk program states that through
kitten adoptions and natural attrition, the Atlantic City boardwalk
feral population has been reduced by more than 70% since the program
began 3 years ago. Cat related nuisance complaints, common before the
TNR ordinance was enacted, are now rare.
San Diego - In San Diego, the Feral Cat Coalition
introduced TNR in 1992 on a county-wide basis. By 1994, despite the
opposition of animal control, euthanasia rates at county shelters for
all cats, domestic and feral, had dropped by 40%. In a city-wide TNR
program led by the San Francisco SPCA during the 1990's, euthanasia
rates dropped over a six year period by over 70%, again for both
domestic and feral cats.
New
York City - On a smaller scale, we have had a similar
experience here in New York City where we began implementing TNR on the
Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1999. From that time through the first
half of 2003, the intake rate for stray cats entering city shelters
from this neighborhood has dropped by 73%. The rate dropped 59% in the
first year alone. Elsewhere in the city, intake rates were generally
stable or rising.
Arizona
- The evidence of TNR's effectiveness does not end there. In Maricopa
County, Arizona, eight years of a TNR program has seen the euthanasia
rate drop from 23 cats per 1000 county residents to only 8 cats per
1000.
Florida
- In southern Florida, where local TNR programs were introduced in the
early 1990's, euthanasia by animal control has dropped by half with
most of the decline attributed to fewer cats being killed. For example,
in 2001, all shelters combined in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami corridor
euthanized 14.1 cats and dogs per 1000 residents, compared to 33.0 per
1000 in 1997. In Tampa, where TNR has not been implemented, the
euthanasia rate in 2001 was 32.4 cats and dogs per 1000 residents,
while across the bay in St. Petersburg where TNR has been widely
practiced, the rate is only 13.7.
To
learn more about the BCCI Program, select from the links below:
The Present Problem That We Face
How The TNR Program Works
The Mechanics of of the BCCI Feral
Cat TNR Program
