What Everybody Should Know About Community Cats

If you see a cat outdoors, the cat could be stray, feral, or free-roaming. Those terms are often used interchangeably by the general public when referring to cats who live outdoors. At Best Friends Animal Society, we like to call these outdoor cats "community cats" because they are valued members of our community and are often cared for by community members.

Trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) is a common-sense, cost-effective solution for managing community cat populations by preventing additional births — rather than trying to round up, house, feed, and kill more cats. Despite TNVR becoming increasingly popular over the past few decades, a great deal of misinformation exists regarding TNVR programs and community cats in general.

To engage with the issue in your neighborhood, you need to know the facts.

Community cat fact vs. fiction

Fiction: TNVR doesn’t work.

Facts: The science is quite clear: There are only two ways proven to reduce, and eventually eliminate, a population of community cats: intensive TNVR efforts or intensive eradication efforts, such as those done using poison, disease, lethal trapping, and hunting on small oceanic islands.^1,2 

Given the horrendous methods employed — and costs that can exceed $100,000 per square mile³ — eradication is a nonstarter in the U.S. The only fiscally sound option, then, is TNVR. 

Arguments about the limitations of its effectiveness, the alleged impact of outdoor cats on the environment, and so forth largely miss the point. In the vast majority of instances, TNVR is simply the best option available to humanely reduce the outdoor cat population and any related nuisance complaints.

A number of TNVR program success stories have demonstrated dramatic population reductions and, in some cases, have completely eliminated community cat colonies.

Fiction: TNVR is too costly to be feasible.

Facts: Studies show that TNVR can actually save taxpayers money. A review of data from Hillsborough County Animal Services (HCAS) in Tampa, Florida, for example, found the cost to sterilize and vaccinate colony cats to be $65 per cat “as opposed to $168 for (HCAS) picking up, handling, and disposing of an animal.”⁴ 

This is similar to cost estimates from San José Animal Care and Services, in California, which reports a cost of approximately $72 per cat for “vaccinations against rabies and other common cat disease, flea treatment, ear treatment, microchip, and ear-tipping.”⁵ 

Estimates compiled from across the U.S. by researchers with the Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs indicate less of a cost difference — but with TNVR still more economical (about $20–$97 per cat) than the traditional impoundment and lethal injection (about $52–$123 per cat).

Dr. Donna M. Alexander, administrator for Cook County (Illinois) Animal and Rabies Control, has testified in court that “prior to adoption of the TNR programs, local municipalities were trapping and euthanizing approximately 500 to 600 feral cats per year, at a cost to taxpayers of about $135 per cat.” Implementation of the county’s TNVR program, then about five or six years old, “had saved the county over $1.5 million, primarily resulting from having fewer feral cats to euthanize.”⁶

Fiction: Residents are opposed to TNVR for managing the community cats in their neighborhood.

Facts: Results of a 2014 national survey commissioned by Best Friends Animal Society revealed a 68% preference for TNVR over impoundment followed by lethal injection of unadoptable cats (24%).⁷ More recently, a 2017 survey (also commissioned by Best Friends) found nearly identical results: 72% of respondents supported TNVR, compared to just 18% favoring impoundment and lethal injection.

Results of a 2006 survey commissioned by Alley Cat Allies found that 81% of respondents thought “leaving a cat where it is outside” was more humane for the cat, compared to the alternative of “having the cat caught and then put down” (14%).⁸ When respondents were asked the same question — but told to assume the cat would die two years later after being hit by a car — the support for “leaving the cat” remained strong, at 72% (with 21% preferring to have the cat caught and euthanized). 

The same questions were asked in two subsequent surveys, and the results again indicated a strong preference (e.g., 73–86% of respondents for the first question) for “leaving the cat where it is outside.”^9,10 

Such attitudes are in line with the results of a 2011 national survey in which just 25% of respondents agreed that animal shelters “should be allowed to euthanize animals as a necessary way of controlling the population of animals.”¹¹

Fiction: TNVR compromises the welfare of community cats.

Facts: Best Friends Animal Society operates more large-scale TNVR programs than any other organization in the country; as such, we are in a unique position to comment on the positive impact of these programs. Our firsthand experience, and evidence from a number of studies, shows that the vast majority of community cats are healthy — even thriving. 

During an 11-year observation period, more than half of the 23 cats living continuously on the University of Central Florida campus were estimated to be 6.8 years old or older, for example.¹² 

A 2012 nationwide survey conducted by Alley Cat Rescue revealed similar longevity: A quarter of TNVR organizations responding to the survey had colony cats in the 6–8 year range, and 35% had cats in the 9–12 year range, while 14% reported caring for cats 13 years of age or older.¹³ And a number of studies have found that cats involved with TNVR programs are “surprisingly healthy and have good body weight.”^14,15,5

Fiction: TNVR poses a significant threat to wildlife, especially native birds.

Facts: The astronomical mortality “estimates” sometimes attributed to outdoor cats¹⁶ simply cannot be reconciled with the best population estimates available¹⁷ or with the population trends documented by the annual North American Breeding Bird Survey.¹⁸ 

In addition, such estimates leave no accounting for other well-documented causes of bird mortality, such as pesticide use, oil spills, habitat loss, window strikes, or other anthropogenic causes. Indeed, were these claims even remotely accurate, no birds would be left.

It’s well known that all predators — cats included — tend to prey on the young, the old, the weak, and the unhealthy. At least two studies have investigated this phenomenon in detail, revealing that birds killed by cats are, on average, significantly less healthy than birds killed through non-predatory events (e.g., collisions with windows or cars).^19,20 

As the U.K.’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds notes: “It is likely that most of the birds killed by cats would have died anyway from other causes before the next breeding season, so cats are unlikely to have a major impact on populations.”²¹ 

In any case, because the most effective way to reduce most populations of community cats is through sterilization, TNVR offers a benefit to wildlife as well.

Fiction: TNVR leads to nuisance complaints from residents.

Facts: A well-run TNVR program generally reduces nuisance complaints — sometimes dramatically. Summarizing their review of the relevant research, the authors of a 2013 report from the Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs write: “Credible studies indicate that neutering reduces urine spraying and roaming in search of mates by male cats, and spaying eliminates estrous-associated behaviors in female cats, including aggression, vocalization and perhaps efforts to escape outdoors in order to mate.”²²

Literature cited

(1) Bester, M. N.; Bloomer, J. P.; Aarde, R. J. van; Erasmus, B. H.; Rensburg, P. J. J. van; Skinner, J. D.; Howell, P. G.; Naude, T. W. A Review of the Successful Eradication of Feral Cats from Sub-Antarctic Marion Island, Southern Indian Ocean. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 2002, 32 (1), 65–73.

(2) Ratcliffe, N.; Bell, M.; Pelembe, T.; Boyle, D.; Benjamin, R.; White, R.; Godley, B.; Stevenson, J.; Sanders, S. The Eradication of Feral Cats from Ascension Island and Its Subsequent Recolonization by Seabirds. Oryx 2009, 44 (01), 20–29.

(3) Campbell, K. J.; Harper, G.; Algar, D.; Hanson, C. C.; Keitt, B. S.; Robinson, S. Review of Feral Cat Eradications on Islands. In Island invasives: eradication and management; Veitch, C. R., Clout, M. N., Towns, D. R., Eds.; IUCN: Gland, Switzerland, 2011.

(4) Hamilton, F. E. Leading and Organizing Social Change for Companion Animals. Anthrozoös 2010, 23 (3), 277–292.

(5) Johnson, K. L.; Cicirelli, J. Study of the Effect on Shelter Cat Intakes and Euthanasia from a Shelter Neuter Return Project of 10,080 Cats from March 2010 to June 2014. PeerJ 2014, 2, e646.

(6) County of Cook v. Village of Bridgeview; 2014.

(7) Wolf, P. J. New Survey Reveals Widespread Support for Trap-Neuter-Return. Humane Thinking 2015.

(8) Chu, K.; Anderson, W. M. Law & Policy Brief: U.S. Public Opinion on Humane Treatment of Stray Cats; Alley Cat Allies: Bethesda, MD, 2007.

(9) Beall, A. E. Community Cats: A Journey into the World of Feral Cats; iUniverse, 2014.

(10) Robinson, B. Letter: How to Manage Green Bay’s Feral Cats. Green Bay Press Gazette. January 25, 2018.

(11) Karpusiewicz, R. AP-Petside.Com Poll: Americans Favor No-Kill Animal Shelters. 2012.

(12) Levy, J. K.; Gale, D. W.; Gale, L. A. Evaluation of the Effect of a Long-Term Trap-Neuter-Return and Adoption Program on a Free-Roaming Cat Population. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 2003, 222 (1), 42–46.

(13) ACR. Alley Cat Rescue’s National Feral Cat Survey. PR Newswire 2012.

(14) Levy, J. K.; Isaza, N. M.; Scott, K. C. Effect of High-Impact Targeted Trap-Neuter-Return and Adoption of Community Cats on Cat Intake to a Shelter. The Veterinary Journal 2014, 201 (3), 269–274.

(15) Normand, C. M. Feral Cat Virus Infection Prevalence, Survival, Population Density, and Multi-Scale Habitat Use in an Exurban Landscape. M.S., Arkansas Tech University: Ann Arbor, 2014.

(16) Loss, S. R.; Will, T.; Marra, P. P. The Impact of Free-Ranging Domestic Cats on Wildlife of the United States. Nature Communications 2013, 4.

(17) Partners in Flight Science Committee 2013. PIF Population Estimates Database pif.birdconservancy.org/PopEstimates/ (accessed Mar 5, 2018).

(18) Sauer, J. R.; Niven, D. K.; Hines, J. E.; Ziolkowski, D. J. J.; Pardieck, K. L.; Fallon, J. E.; Link, W. A. The North American Breeding Bird Survey, Results and Analysis 1966–2015. Version 2.07.2017; USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD, 2017.

(19) Møller, A. P.; Erritzøe, J. Predation against Birds with Low Immunocompetence. Oecologia 2000, 122 (4), 500–504.

(20) Baker, P. J.; Molony, S. E.; Stone, E.; Cuthill, I. C.; Harris, S. Cats about Town: Is Predation by Free-Ranging Pet Cats Felis Catus Likely to Affect Urban Bird Populations? Ibis 2008, 150, 86–99.

(21) RSPB. Are Cats Causing Bird Declines? 2016.

(22) Moldave, K.; Rhodes, L. Contraception and Fertility Control in Dogs and Cats; Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs, 2013.