TRAP NEUTER & RETURN

COMMUNITY CAT PROGRAM

Converse County Animal Shelter is committed to the welfare of all animals in our community, even those without a home. CCAS continues to lower the number of homeless and unaltered outdoor cats in our community through our Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, and Return program commonly known as the Community Cat Program.

CCAS humanely traps, alters, vaccinates, and returns feral cats to their original location. By assuring the health and return of these colonized and altered cats, we create a population of cats that act as a natural pest control. Other methods, including relocation, are ineffective as they create a space for sick and unaltered cats to populate. This vacancy and repopulation are referred to as the vacuum effect. More information from the Alley Cat Allies website can be found below.

Alley Cat Allies

DO YOU NEED HELP WITH TNVR?

FAQs

  • Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return is the humane and effective approach for stray and feral cats. Now in practice for decades in the US after being proven in Europe, scientific studies show that TNVR improves the lives of feral cats, improves their relationships with the people who live near them, and decreases the size of colonies over time.

    TNVR is successfully practiced in hundreds of communities and in every landscape and setting. It is exactly what it sounds like: Cats are humanely trapped and taken to a veterinarian to be neutered and vaccinated. After recovery, the cats are returned to their home—their colony—outdoors. Kittens and cats who are friendly and socialized to people may be adopted into homes.

    Grounded in science, TNvR stops the breeding cycle of cats and therefore improves their lives while preventing reproduction. It is a fact that the removal and killing of outdoor cats that animal control has been pursuing for decades is never ending and futile. Since feral cats are not adoptable, they are killed in pounds and shelters. With a successful program like Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return to turn to, it’s hard to believe that animal control agencies continue to kill cats, even though that approach has shown zero results.

    It is time to put an end to catch and kill. TNVR provides a life-saving, effective solution for these beautiful, independent cats.

  • Stabilizes feral cat colonies

    Improves cats' lives

    Answers the needs of the community

    Protects cats' lives

    Works—other methods just don't

  • Attempts to permanently remove cats from an area always fail because of a natural and scientifically-documented phenomenon known as the vacuum effect. In basic terms, whenever cats are removed, new cats move in, or the surviving cats left behind, breed to capacity.