Around the country, thousands, if not millions, of community cat caretakers — studies show approximately 10 to 14 percent of households —
feed outdoor colonies, some supplying winter shelters packed with straw and spending their weekends trapping, neutering and returning (TNR) feral and semi-feral community cats.
Not exact matches
Paul Glassner, award - winning writer, editor, and volunteer for Fix Our Ferals,
feeds Science Diet to his
colony because «
outdoor cats need all the help they can get.
They also agreed to back an ordinance banning the
feeding of
outdoor creatures — with the exception of carefully monitored
feeding of cat
colonies once or twice a day.
The cat is then released back to its original
outdoor location and managed by a caregiver who will manage the
colony and maintain a clean environment through controlled
feeding.
They defined «unowned» as farm cats living in barns, strays living
outdoors that may be
fed by humans, and feral cats that fend for themselves — all of which might live alone or in
colonies.
In Cook County it is now illegal to
feed outdoor unowned cats without being a registered
colony caretaker with a sponsoring organization and practicing TNR including rabies vaccination and responsible
colony management.
Managed cat
colonies are becoming common in most major U.S. cities and are usually operated by volunteers who like to
feed cats, rely on a scheme called Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR), whereby cats are trapped, neutered, and then returned to the
outdoors.
In late 2010, for example, when ABC hosted a webinar to promote their book The American Bird Conservancy Guide to Bird Conservation (which, among other things, advises readers to «make TNR and the
feeding of cat
colonies illegal,» [2]-RRB-, I asked co-authors Daniel Lebbin (conservation biologist for ABC) and Michael Parr (now ABC's VP of planning and program development) about their recommendation for all the cats already living
outdoors.
No matter what type of
feeding station you choose, it can be an extremely valuable tool in managing a
colony of
outdoor cats.
Nevertheless, the law is not well enforced, many abandoned and free - ranging cats are
fed outdoors by people, and regular
feeding stations can become cat
colonies.
Conservationists say that, far from diminishing the population of unowned cats, trap and release programs may be making it worse, by encouraging people to abandon their pets to
outdoor colonies that volunteers often keep lovingly
fed.
Most callers are caregivers of
outdoor colonies and are
feeding cats.
In Cook County it is now illegal to
feed outdoor, un-owned cats without being a registered
colony caretaker with a sponsoring organization who is practicing TNR and responsible
colony management.
Examples include laws that prohibit cats from being at - large (so - called leash laws), require licenses for all cats, ban the
feeding of any animal
outdoors or limit the number of pets a person can own (with «own» defined as
feeding, harboring or similar language that would apply to a
colony caretaker).
Providing food, water and shelter for
outdoor cats is important, but it's also equally important to make sure all of the cats in the
colony are spayed and neutered as quickly as possible, once you start
feeding a
colony.
Rather than rounding up feral cats and euthanizing the ones that can not be adopted out, these feral cat advocates want to establish cat
colonies where cats are
fed outdoors until they die of natural causes.