We’re in the midst of “kitten season,” when thousands of newborn kittens join the cats already in animal shelters across the country.  To bring awareness to this overcrowding issue, the American Humane Association has designated June Adopt-A-Cat Month.

To help local leaders manage their community cats, ICMA and the Human Society of the United States collaborated to create this guidebook. Here are 5 strategies from the guidebook:

ANIMAL CONTROL/SHELTHER INNOVATIONS

Most animal shelters spay/neuter cats before they are adopted, but this may not address cat overpopulation.  Some outside-the-box ideas are to subsidize spaying/neutering for lower income citizens or to provide community cat caretakers with the training and equipment to spay/neuter.

COLLABORATION

Stakeholders must work together to create programs that address specific needs and maximize their community’s available resources. By working together, municipal agencies, shelters, veterinarians, and cat rescue groups can humanely reduce community cat populations while protecting the public, cats, and wildlife.

SERVICE FOR PET OWNERS

Services for pet owners in the community must be accessible to all residents. Services should include preventative and wellness care, such as vaccinations; tips for finding pet-friendly rental housing; and information on keeping pets in pet owners’ homes by resolving unwanted behaviors and managing allergies.

USING DATA

Through better data collection on cat intake, complaint calls, and euthanasia, and with the advent of GIS software, we are now able to target and focus resources on areas where projects can have the biggest impact. Many projects have had success focusing their funding and efforts within certain zip codes, neighborhoods, or specific locations, such as apartment complexes.

TRAP-NEUTER-RETURN

Trap-Neuter-Return (TRN) and its variants are nonlethal strategies intended to reduce the numbers of community cats, improve the health and safety of cats, and reduce impacts on wildlife. At minimum, TNR community cats are spayed or neutered so they can no longer reproduce, vaccinated against rabies, marked to identify them as sterilized (the universally recognized sign of a sterilized cat is an ear tip, a surgical removal of the top quarter inch of the of the cat's ear, typically the left), and returned to their home territory. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Trap-Neuter-Return programs, check out this blog post covering a successful program in San Jose, California.