‘Community cat” is a term that describes any unowned cat that is outdoor and free-roaming. These cats may be routinely fed by one or more community members or they are surviving on their own, and may be social or unsocialized.

As of 2018, WVHS no longer participates in the “catch and remove” method of controlling cat colony populations. TNR is a method of humanely trapping community cats, having them brought to the shelter to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, ear-tipped, and returned to their outdoor homes. 

A community cat is an unowned, free-roaming cat that lives outdoors. To effectively manage the behaviors of free-roaming cats in our community, such as breeding, spraying, and fighting,

Wenatchee Valley Humane Society takes a two-pronged approach:

1. Trap, Neuter, and Return (TNR) is a comprehensive effort within specific communities to humanely trap, sterilize, vaccinate, and return these free-roaming cats to the community, significantly reducing the number of kittens born in these areas.

2. The Return to Home (RTH) program is for free-roaming cats brought to the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society. If they are determined to qualify for a return to their outdoor homes, the cats are then sterilized and returned to the neighborhood in which they were found.

To identify community cats that have been part of these processes so that they are not readmitted, the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society uses the industry-standard practice of ear-tipping.

With effective community cat programs, cats are returned to their original outdoor homes after they’ve been spayed or neutered and vaccinated. This prevents new cats from moving into the area. Altered cats will not continue the cycle because they cannot have kittens resulting in a reduction in population size over time. This is the only humane and effective way to manage populations of community cats.

Return-to-Home (RTH) is the same as TNR, but it has one small difference. The TNR program relies on members of the public to trap community cats and bring them to the clinic. The RTH program has been implemented for community cats brought to the shelter and the WVHS team releases the cats after TNR. When cats are brought in, our team of animal welfare professionals will examine the cat and determine if they are a candidate for release back to their community home.

Community cats populate an area when there’s food and shelter to support them. If the cats are removed, other cats will find the vacant space and move in for the same reason as the original cats- there’s food and shelter. This is called the vacuum affect. The new cats will have more kittens, and repeat the cycle. With TNR/RTH, the original cats are returned to the territory after they’ve been spay/neutered, so that new cats will not move into that area. These cats, who’ve received spay/neuter, will not continue the process because they cannot have kittens.

Rethinking the Animal Shelter's Role in Free-Roaming Cat Management

The traditional shelter model was originally developed to care for dogs and livestock and simply does not meet the unique needs of cats. As a result, shelters do not provide the best option for cats, and statistics demonstrate that: nationally, cats admitted to shelters have only a 2% chance of being reunited with an owner and a nearly 50% chance of being euthanized in a shelter.

In shelter environments, community cats accustomed to roaming miles daily are confined to small habitats in highly populated indoor spaces, which can lead to extreme stress and illness, resulting in significantly higher rates of death and euthanasia.

Additionally, despite the use of traditional sheltering methods and the work of many people and organizations dedicated to caring for animals, the volume of cats entering shelters continues to increase. In 2019, nearly 2.3 million cats entered shelters nationwide, up from 2.2 million the previous year.

It is important to note that cats live and thrive outdoors worldwide — in Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, and beyond. North America is the only continent where keeping indoor-only cats has become common practice. Even in the United States, keeping indoor cats as pets only became popular after 1947, with the invention of cat litter, and then became more commonplace in the 1970s when shelters advocated for keeping cats indoors to control the population. Additionally, cats — unlike their canine counterparts — have DNA that has remained unchanged for the past 4 million years.

The feline pets we keep today are still virtually identical to those who have thrived outside for millions of years! According to National Geographic, a study that compared the DNA of cats throughout history shows that no major differences exist between the genetic makeup of wild and domestic cats. As a result, they remain perfectly capable of thriving in the wild.

These facts demand that we challenge old ways of thinking and use innovative solutions that are in the best interest of community cats.

WVHS and other leading animal welfare organizations are creating comprehensive community cat programs to meet the needs of individual cats while helping reduce populations over time. These programs focus on supporting community cats by spaying/neutering, vaccinating, and returning healthy community cats to their outdoor homes.

Supporters of these programs include a wide range of veterinarians, shelter experts, and leading animal welfare organizations — including Alley Cat Allies, American Pets Alive, Best Friends, the Humane Society of the United States, the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California, Davis, and Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida. In addition to being what’s best for individual cats, spaying/neutering community cats and returning them outdoors is the only way to reduce their population numbers over time. While programs that care for community cats may have slight variations and go by different names, including Spay/Neuter Return (SNR), Trap/Neuter Return (TNR) or Return to Field (RTF), Return to Home (RTH), they are all focused on the same thing: ensuring the best outcomes for healthy, unowned, outdoor cats.

WVHS’s Neighborhood Cat Program relies on years of scientific research, discussion, and debate among those in the animal welfare community who have dedicated their lives to doing what’s best for animals. Community cats entering the program are spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and quickly returned to their outdoor homes. This program only applies to healthy cats and those with easily treatable conditions who demonstrate they are living well outside. It does not apply to cats under 16 weeks of age, are unhealthy, show signs of having been recently abandoned, were relinquished by their owners, or were found in a location that presented an immediate danger.

Ear-tipping is a way of signaling that a community cat has been spayed or neutered. This procedure is done by a licensed veterinarian during the spay/neuter process, and it involves removing a small portion of the cat’s ear. It is a humane and safe procedure that prevents unnecessary trapping of a cat who has already been spayed/neutered. 

If there is a cat coming and going from your property, there is most likely something keeping them coming back. If the cats know there is a resource like food, water, or shelter, they will come around. Here are some tips to keep them away: Keeping cats out of gardens and yards

Remove all potential food sources from the property: This would include pet food for the resident’s animals, meat scraps in compost, fallen fruit from trees, barbecue grills, excess bird food from bird feeders and garbage. Garbage bags are very attractive to animals, so trash should be kept in containers with a secure lid, and put out in the morning of pick-up to reduce the temptation for the animals.

Limit availability of water: Limit access to water features, pools and ponds with fencing. Remove or repair sources of standing water.

Remove or secure potential shelter areas: Secure access under houses, sheds, decks, porches and buildings with wire fencing. Open spaces beneath structures should be tightly screened with 1/4- or 1/3-inch galvanized hardware mesh. The bottom edge of the wire should be buried at least 6 inches deep, extended outward for 12 inches, so it forms an L shape, and then covered with soil, or heavy stones. Trees should be trimmed so that the branches that overhang roofs are at least 5 feet from the house. Bushes and shrubs need to be thinned and trimmed so that there is 18 inches of open space above the ground to limit the cover for animals to hide under.

Other useful tactics: Place chicken wire or plastic carpet runner, spikes up, under flower bed mulch to make scratching uncomfortable. Sprinkle coffee grounds or citrus peels or use citrus spray on gardens and shrubs. One very effective tool is a motion detection device combined with common water, available from various outlets. The cat breaks the beam of the device, and is immediately sprayed with a stream of water. This device works on raccoons, dogs, opossums and other animals, too.

NACA Position Statement on Community Cats

National Feline Research Council

Community Cats Scientific Studies & Data