When Lenawee Humane Society reached out to our community to ask what the biggest animal-related issue is, the unanimous response was community cats and their alarming reproduction rate. Community cats do not "belong" to anyone. They are the stray and feral, unsocialized cats leading a life outdoors, away from human contact. Some of these cats live in colonies, headed by a caretaker who may feed them regularly. Lenawee County has no cat ordinance, because regulating unowned cats is impossible. This left Lenawee Humane Society fighting an overwhelming battle. As a no-kill shelter with limited funding and space, it is impossible for us to accept and care for every cat found in our county.
A solution was needed, and it needed to happen quickly. How could we address this issue in a humane, yet effective way?
We soon launched a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program with the founding of our new on-site clinic, the Hope Clinic. TNR has proven to be the most effective and humane solution for cat overpopulation, allowing us to work with the community to spay/neuter these community cats and return them to their living areas afterwards. These fixed cats were no longer reproducing and acted as "placeholders" within their colony, keeping other breeding cats from moving into that area. A grant from Petsmart Charities allowed us to offer TNR to the public by subsidizing the cost of this service.
The data collected since Operation: FIXation first launched is amazing. The program is working!
From June 1st, 2014 to May 31st, 2015, the Hope Clinic spayed/neutered 441 cats through our new TNR program. We accepted 353 cats into our adoption program – of those, 294 were strays and 59 were owner surrenders. The average length of stay for a cat in our shelter was 46 days. From 2014-2015, 346 cats were adopted out, 28 were euthanized due to medical conditions that were causing undue suffering, and three stray cats were reunited with their owners. Furthermore, we assisted 96 families through our Pet Food Bank.
From June 1st, 2015 to May 31st, 2016, only a year later, those numbers changed dramatically. The Hope Clinic spayed/neutered 844 cats through our TNR program. Only 281 cats entered our adoption program, and only 98 of them were strays. The other 183 cats were surrendered by owners who desperately needed our help – and we were finally available to help them. The average length of stay for a cat in our shelter dropped to 39 days. From 2015-2016, 286 cats were adopted out, only six were euthanized, and nine were reunited with their families. The number of families needing assistance from our Pet Food Bank dropped to 41.
What does this data mean, you ask? It means that our Trap-Neuter-Return program is allowing unsocialized and feral cats to remain where they belong without reproducing, freeing up resources and space within our shelter and allowing us to help those families who need us most!
