Community Cat Coalition
Education • Advocacy • Humane Solutions
The Community Cat Coalition, a program of PAWS of Adams County, is dedicated to improving the lives of community cats through education, Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), responsible colony management, and community partnerships.
Our goal is to reduce cat overpopulation humanely. Every year, thousands of unwanted kittens are born because cats reproduce quickly. Without humane intervention, colonies continue to grow, placing tremendous strain on shelters, rescues, and the community.
Trap-Neuter-Return has been proven to reduce colony sizes over time while improving the health and quality of life of community cats.
🐾 Why We Started
We know there is an overpopulation of cats throughout the United States—including right here in Adams County.
Unfortunately, many communities still rely on outdated methods such as euthanasia or relocation to control cat populations. These methods have repeatedly been shown to be ineffective because they fail to address the root cause of overpopulation.
PAWS believes Trap-Neuter-Return-Monitor (TNRM) is the most humane and effective long-term solution for managing community cat colonies.
A Spay/Neuter Vet Began coming to NOVEMBER 25, 2024 and has been such a great resource for spay neuter locally!
We know there is an overpopulation of cats in our country, including right here in our own community, and want to promote spay and neuter...which is the number one way to tackle this issue.
We have found that the two biggest reasons people don't spay/neuter their pets is costs and having to travel out of county for low cost options.
In an effort to find a solution, we have reached out to and are working with FOUR DIRECTIONS VET, a mobile vet unit that started coming to Decatur once, sometimes twice a month, depending on community response.
We have worked with both of these vets in the past and know they share our passion of wanting to curb the cat overpopulation problem.
This will be for cats only, to begin with...either personal/owned cats or community/tnr cats.
Location is in the east parking lot of Riverside Center in Decatur.
COST is $100 per cat. (Other services will be available at an additional cost if you choose to add any).
SPACE IS LIMITED to 20 cats per date.
To get started, click on the link below. You will be instructed how to register and will also be given information regarding pre-op, drop off and pick up instructions.
We hope this service proves to be a solution for many in our community and are looking forward to seeing where this leads. We hope to offer more options with this service as we progress.
We will be helping with check in and pick up and are looking forward to seeing you there!
What is a Community Cat
“Community Cats” is a term used to describe outdoor, unowned, free-roaming cats. These cats could be friendly, feral, adults, kittens, healthy, sick, altered and/or unaltered. They may or may not have a caregiver. By this definition, the only outdoor free-roaming cats who are not community cats are those who have an owner.
TNRM is the method of humanely trapping community cats, having them spayed or neutered and vaccinated against rabies, and then returning them to their colony to live out their lives. TNRM also involves a colony caretaker who provides food and adequate shelter and monitors the cats' health. TNRM has been shown to be the least costly and the most humane, efficient way of stabilizing community cat populations. TNRM helps stabilize the population of community colonies and, over time, reduces them. Nuisance behaviors such as spraying, excessive noisemaking and fighting are largely eliminated and no additional kittens are born.
By stabilizing the population, cats will naturally have more space, shelter and food and fewer risks of disease. After being spayed or neutered, cats living in colonies tend to gain weight and live healthier lives. Spayed cats are less likely to develop breast cancer and will not be at risk for ovarian or uterine cancer, while neutered males will not get testicular cancer. Neutering male cats also reduces the risk of injury and infection, since intact males have a natural instinct to fight with other cats. Spaying also means female cats do not go into heat. That means they attract fewer tom cats to the area, which reduces fighting.
✂️ What is TNRM?
I'd use four icon boxes instead of a paragraph.
🐱 Trap
Humanely trap community cats using safe live traps.
✂️ Neuter/Spay
Cats are spayed or neutered by a licensed veterinarian.
💉 Vaccinate
Cats receive a rabies vaccination and other services when appropriate.
🏡 Return & Monitor
Healthy cats are returned to their colony where caretakers continue to provide food, shelter, and monitor their health.
❤️ Why TNRM Works
Benefits include:
✔ Prevents future litters ✔ Reduces spraying
✔ Reduces fighting ✔ Reduces noise
✔ Improves overall health ✔ Stabilizes colony populations
✔ Reduces disease transmission ✔ Improves quality of life
Why Ear-Tipping Matters
-
Left ear
-
Straight across
-
Done during surgery
-
Universal symbol
-
Prevents unnecessary trapping
Ineffective Methods for Managing Community Cat Populations
Eradication: The deliberate and systematic destruction of a community cat colony, by whatever method, almost always leads to the “vacuum effect”—either new cats flock to the vacated area to exploit whatever food source attracted the original inhabitants, or survivors breed and their descendants are more cautious around threats. Simply put, eradication is only a temporary fix that sacrifices animals' lives unnecessarily, yet yields no positive or beneficial return.
Relocation
Many communities have rounded up colonies of community cats either for euthanasia or to relocate them to another area. Although PAWS, for the safety of the cat for many reasons has done this, this does not work. Community cats are very connected with their territory: They are familiar with its food sources and places that offer shelter, as well as resident wildlife, other cats in the area, and potential threats to their safety. Even when all community cats are removed, which is difficult to achieve, new cats will soon move in and set up camp.
Relocation is something to consider only if keeping the cats where they are becomes a threat to their lives, such as their territory being demolished and there is no adjacent space to shift them to, or if the cats' lives would be at extreme risk should they remain where they are.
If you would like more info on the effect of tnr please visit the sites bellow.
