Community Cats / TNR
Welcome to TNR and Community Cats, your comprehensive resource for understanding and implementing Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs to help manage and protect community cat populations. Whether you're a dedicated volunteer, a concerned community member, or an organization looking to reduce overpopulation and improve the welfare of feral cats, we provide the information, tools, and support you need to make a positive impact.
What is a Community Cat?
Community cats are unowned cats who live outdoors in virtually every landscape on every continent where people live. Like pet cats, they belong to the domestic cat species (Felis catus). However, community cats, also known as feral, stray, or alley cats, are generally not socialized, or friendly and able to live indoors, with people. They live full, healthy lives with their feline families (called colonies) in their outdoor homes. Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is the only humane, effective approach to community cats, and it helps them and the communities where they live.
What is TNR?
Trap-Neuter-Return is a humane and effective solution to the challenges of feral cat overpopulation. Our platform offers step-by-step guidance on how to safely trap, neuter, and return community cats to their outdoor homes, while also providing resources on building sustainable TNR programs, finding local spay/neuter clinics, and coordinating with other animal welfare groups. By supporting TNR and caring for community cats, you can help reduce the number of unwanted litters, decrease the spread of disease, and improve the quality of life for feral cats.
Local Organizations Helping Community Cats
Spirits Place
Spirits Place is a non-profit organization in St. Albans, Maine dedicated to caring for feral and community cats, and compassionately sheltering homeless, abandoned, or abused cats in preparation for adoption. Our founding team has over 40 years of experience successfully managing healthy cat colonies, delivering spay/neuter help with partners, and educating the public to improve knowledge and understanding about the humane, life-saving treatment of cats, in hopes that someday, every cat will be cared for, loved and wanted. We mostly serve communities in Somerset, Piscataquis, and Penobscot counties.
https://spiritsplace.org/
Friends of Feral Felines
Friends of Feral Felines is committed to helping feral cats in southern Maine. Their mission is to humanely reduce the number of feral cats in our communities through trapping, neutering, and then releasing them back to their colony sites (a method called Trap-Neuter-Return or TNR). In time, the colonies’ populations shrink due to lack of reproduction. They also provide the colonies with food and water regularly and monitor them for new, sick, or injured members who need medical attention. FoFF also finds barn homes for some of the cats, and we foster and socialize kittens to prepare them for adoption. Their efforts include public education and fundraising to support the ongoing need for food and medical care.
https://feralfelines.net
Community Cat Advocates
Community Cat Advocates assists with safely spaying or neutering your neighborhood stray and feral cats. The mission of Community Cat Advocates is to help Maine to become a no-kill state through Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR), taking feral cats from shelters, trapping and relocating feral cats with no caretaker, and occasionally taking in friendly cats who due to severe fear or anxiety issues would not do well in typical shelter settings. TNR is the humane process to trap cats and take them to receive veterinary care, vaccinations and be neutered. Following their recovery these cats or kittens are adopted to families when possible or returned to their home colony. TNR has been practiced for decades and safely helps control the stray/feral population.
https://www.communitycatadvocates.com
Cat Coalition of Western Maine
Cat Coalition of Western Maine is a TNR Program, Sanctuary, and host Spay Neuter Clinics. They work within their communities to help community cats.
https://www.facebook.com/CatCoalitionOfWesternMaine/
Tommy's Feral Feline Friends
A No-Kill Shelter for feral cats.
https://www.tommysferalfelinefriends.com
How to identify a Community Cat
