Animal Welfare Professionals

We are a Trap - Neuter - Return organization,  we support caregivers with cat food, traps and spay/neuter vouchers.  Are there other organizations that support TNR programs? I would like to start a discussion on how how your program works, any suggestions? experiences that you would like to share?  

We are a Trap - Neuter - Return organization,  we support caregivers with cat food, traps and spay/neuter vouchers.  Are there other organizations that support TNR programs? I would like to start a discussion on how how your program works, any suggestions? experiences that you would like to share?  

We are a small all-volunteer TNR group also. One of our biggest challenges is we have no local resources. No shelter, no veterinarians who can perform TNR, no local government support.  As an example, our parish's (county for the rest of the world) ordinances requiring rabies vaccinations for dogs & running at large was last updated right after World War II. Ridiculous. We began as citizen trappers, but last year we went non-profit, which has helped a lot. We were able to secure TNR discounts & increase the number of cats we can take in at one time. Both usually reserved for shelters & nonprofits. Because we don't have local vets, we travel to a TNR non-profit vet in another parish. Local vets are too expensive & scheduling difficult. We've not used them (wish we could) because of this & I'm not sure they could handle a feral. Also, just one or 2 cats whereas we can take 16 cats per week out of Parish.

We are a Trap - Neuter - Return organization,  we support caregivers with cat food, traps and spay/neuter vouchers.  Are there other organizations that support TNR programs? I would like to start a discussion on how how your program works, any suggestions? experiences that you would like to share?  

Hi Jan - 
One thing we did when we were talking with private vet clinics (the ones that didn't do much, if any, rescue work) was we loaned them a trap to practice sedation through the wires and gave them a trap fork. The vets were savvy but the staff were really intimidated, so this really helped them feel more confident in working with feral/community cats. Even though this vet only gets either 1F or 2M in once a week, it does make a difference. That's 50-100 cats a year. Another one schedules us 2x weekly (1F or 2M each visit) so that's another 100- 200 cats.
Other techniques we use to cut our costs, some clinics just donate the vaccines to us, others will donate just the Rabies but we are allowed to have our own vaccines held at their clinic. Same with flea meds. One clinic that does work with rescue orgs lets us hold our microchips, combo tests and other supplies at their facility too. 
It all adds up. We have found that many vets want to help more than they are but aren't sure how to go about it or who to partner with. They don't want to advertise low cost at a total price break or they will be innundated with requests, and some rescue orgs can be unreasonable, rude or difficult to work with. We get them all the info in advance and made it as easy for them as possible. 

We are a small all-volunteer TNR group also. One of our biggest challenges is we have no local resources. No shelter, no veterinarians who can perform TNR, no local government support.  As an example, our parish's (county for the rest of the world) ordinances requiring rabies vaccinations for dogs & running at large was last updated right after World War II. Ridiculous. We began as citizen trappers, but last year we went non-profit, which has helped a lot. We were able to secure TNR discounts & increase the number of cats we can take in at one time. Both usually reserved for shelters & nonprofits. Because we don't have local vets, we travel to a TNR non-profit vet in another parish. Local vets are too expensive & scheduling difficult. We've not used them (wish we could) because of this & I'm not sure they could handle a feral. Also, just one or 2 cats whereas we can take 16 cats per week out of Parish.

We are a Trap - Neuter - Return organization,  we support caregivers with cat food, traps and spay/neuter vouchers.  Are there other organizations that support TNR programs? I would like to start a discussion on how how your program works, any suggestions? experiences that you would like to share?  

Hi Karen,

Oh wow! Thank you so very much! We have traps & dividers we could loan a vet to "practice"  What a brilliant idea I've never thought about. We're already looking into getting rabies vac & possibly even anesthesia donated for vet to hold for us  to get cost down. The price we were given is too high & reduces the number of cats we can TNR. But if we could get that cost down to equal our TNR vet cost, that could really increase our yearly by 50-100 cats! 

Also an eye opener is total 50-100 cats/yr  taking  just 1 or 2 cats in a week. I originally shunned that vs taking 16 cats a week to our TNR vet. We trap every Sunday & Wednesday, transport to our TNR vet every Monday & Thursday. We sanitize traps Tuesday, so we need that extra day. Our vet TNR Monday-Thursday, so don't want to trade 8 cats for 1 or 2. If we could get a local vet to take 2-3 cats on Friday....hmmm. Something to look into!

Thank you so much for sharing what you all do. Your ideas can really help us expand from citizen trappers to our nonprofit TNR group (we're in our 2nd year). This is also the first thread I've come across specifically for community cats and I think the first I've commented or participated in. I can't thank you enough for responding so quickly & the wealth of information you've shared. You're the best!

Hi Jan - 
One thing we did when we were talking with private vet clinics (the ones that didn't do much, if any, rescue work) was we loaned them a trap to practice sedation through the wires and gave them a trap fork. The vets were savvy but the staff were really intimidated, so this really helped them feel more confident in working with feral/community cats. Even though this vet only gets either 1F or 2M in once a week, it does make a difference. That's 50-100 cats a year. Another one schedules us 2x weekly (1F or 2M each visit) so that's another 100- 200 cats.
Other techniques we use to cut our costs, some clinics just donate the vaccines to us, others will donate just the Rabies but we are allowed to have our own vaccines held at their clinic. Same with flea meds. One clinic that does work with rescue orgs lets us hold our microchips, combo tests and other supplies at their facility too. 
It all adds up. We have found that many vets want to help more than they are but aren't sure how to go about it or who to partner with. They don't want to advertise low cost at a total price break or they will be innundated with requests, and some rescue orgs can be unreasonable, rude or difficult to work with. We get them all the info in advance and made it as easy for them as possible. 

We are a small all-volunteer TNR group also. One of our biggest challenges is we have no local resources. No shelter, no veterinarians who can perform TNR, no local government support.  As an example, our parish's (county for the rest of the world) ordinances requiring rabies vaccinations for dogs & running at large was last updated right after World War II. Ridiculous. We began as citizen trappers, but last year we went non-profit, which has helped a lot. We were able to secure TNR discounts & increase the number of cats we can take in at one time. Both usually reserved for shelters & nonprofits. Because we don't have local vets, we travel to a TNR non-profit vet in another parish. Local vets are too expensive & scheduling difficult. We've not used them (wish we could) because of this & I'm not sure they could handle a feral. Also, just one or 2 cats whereas we can take 16 cats per week out of Parish.

We are a Trap - Neuter - Return organization,  we support caregivers with cat food, traps and spay/neuter vouchers.  Are there other organizations that support TNR programs? I would like to start a discussion on how how your program works, any suggestions? experiences that you would like to share?  

Hi Jan - 

Thank you! 

At first when our scheduler came up with this idea, and it was 1-2 cats, I was like, how is that great - when I was used to trapping more in volume for our TNR clinicb, because I was viewing it through the volume TNR lens. Once I stepped back and was like, yeah, actually this will totally add up, it was great. 

We schedule these for days when we aren't trapping for volume TNR AND we were able to start getting in low income pets from our TNR locations. You know, the dense complexes or mobile home communities where you have the population  of semiferal/outside cats and the indoor outdoor pets that are still breeding. THAT was a complete game changer regarding these locations. Our volume TNR clinic won't allow tame cats and the wait for the low cost/voucher type s/n surgeries for the public is incredibly long . So when we have these Monday or Wednesday appointments, we can easily gather tame cats for these spots the night before. These spots are also good for that elusive feral that isn't cooperating or when you are pulling out all the stops to finish a location. We can trap them without being limited by knowing "'if I catch him this day, I am holding him at least a week".  That doesn't happen. It allows us more freedom, which is great because most of us work M-F. 

We are pretty new too! Coming up on 4 years as a 501c3 and once people see what you are doing, they are much more likely to support your efforts. 

We had a vet reach out once, they liked what we were doing, wanted to help build a partnership. We were so excited and met with them. Turns out they only wanted to fix the kittens we were trapping at colonies for, like $230 each and adopt them out. We don't fix kittens because we don't adopt - we transfer all our kittens to a couple rescue/shelter orgs in the area and they fix them. That allows us to stay true to our TNR mission. But yeah, that price was laughable for us. So you have to be sure you are in alignment with the vet partners you build. But we have found many that want to be on board with these efforts. 

Good luck!
 

Hi Karen,

Oh wow! Thank you so very much! We have traps & dividers we could loan a vet to "practice"  What a brilliant idea I've never thought about. We're already looking into getting rabies vac & possibly even anesthesia donated for vet to hold for us  to get cost down. The price we were given is too high & reduces the number of cats we can TNR. But if we could get that cost down to equal our TNR vet cost, that could really increase our yearly by 50-100 cats! 

Also an eye opener is total 50-100 cats/yr  taking  just 1 or 2 cats in a week. I originally shunned that vs taking 16 cats a week to our TNR vet. We trap every Sunday & Wednesday, transport to our TNR vet every Monday & Thursday. We sanitize traps Tuesday, so we need that extra day. Our vet TNR Monday-Thursday, so don't want to trade 8 cats for 1 or 2. If we could get a local vet to take 2-3 cats on Friday....hmmm. Something to look into!

Thank you so much for sharing what you all do. Your ideas can really help us expand from citizen trappers to our nonprofit TNR group (we're in our 2nd year). This is also the first thread I've come across specifically for community cats and I think the first I've commented or participated in. I can't thank you enough for responding so quickly & the wealth of information you've shared. You're the best!

Hi Jan - 
One thing we did when we were talking with private vet clinics (the ones that didn't do much, if any, rescue work) was we loaned them a trap to practice sedation through the wires and gave them a trap fork. The vets were savvy but the staff were really intimidated, so this really helped them feel more confident in working with feral/community cats. Even though this vet only gets either 1F or 2M in once a week, it does make a difference. That's 50-100 cats a year. Another one schedules us 2x weekly (1F or 2M each visit) so that's another 100- 200 cats.
Other techniques we use to cut our costs, some clinics just donate the vaccines to us, others will donate just the Rabies but we are allowed to have our own vaccines held at their clinic. Same with flea meds. One clinic that does work with rescue orgs lets us hold our microchips, combo tests and other supplies at their facility too. 
It all adds up. We have found that many vets want to help more than they are but aren't sure how to go about it or who to partner with. They don't want to advertise low cost at a total price break or they will be innundated with requests, and some rescue orgs can be unreasonable, rude or difficult to work with. We get them all the info in advance and made it as easy for them as possible. 

We are a small all-volunteer TNR group also. One of our biggest challenges is we have no local resources. No shelter, no veterinarians who can perform TNR, no local government support.  As an example, our parish's (county for the rest of the world) ordinances requiring rabies vaccinations for dogs & running at large was last updated right after World War II. Ridiculous. We began as citizen trappers, but last year we went non-profit, which has helped a lot. We were able to secure TNR discounts & increase the number of cats we can take in at one time. Both usually reserved for shelters & nonprofits. Because we don't have local vets, we travel to a TNR non-profit vet in another parish. Local vets are too expensive & scheduling difficult. We've not used them (wish we could) because of this & I'm not sure they could handle a feral. Also, just one or 2 cats whereas we can take 16 cats per week out of Parish.

We are a Trap - Neuter - Return organization,  we support caregivers with cat food, traps and spay/neuter vouchers.  Are there other organizations that support TNR programs? I would like to start a discussion on how how your program works, any suggestions? experiences that you would like to share?  

Hi Karen,

Thanks again for all the information you shared! We're in talks with 2 vets to take 2 cats a week outside of our "volume" TNR.  Including your suggestion to loan traps & we'll purchase trap dividers for their use. I have this hair brained scheme to get suppliers to donate rabies vac & anesthesia for our cats to get the cost down. We'll see if that's feasible. And if we could get a couple of volunteers to transport those 2 cats or if we can drop them off during volume transports that would be close to 200 extra cats a year. Wow! 

We also just got approval for google workspace for nonprofits & will be setting up a basic website with google sites. We hope that will give us more exposure. We have a free, simple "coming soon" site up that was included when we got our domain name.  Backwoods TNR

I have to share this story.  AI set it up automatically & somehow it chose a photo of a couch. A white couch...cat hair magnet. It took me 45 minutes to figure out how to get it to change to cats. LOL!

If you don't mind me asking, how are you all handling your financials? We're using google spreadsheets. Our processes are very simple, but google sheets is manual, so we're looking at Sage for nonprofits or Quickbooks for nonprofits for further automation & to save time.

I really appreciate your generosity sharing your expertise! 

Jan

Hi Jan - 

Thank you! 

At first when our scheduler came up with this idea, and it was 1-2 cats, I was like, how is that great - when I was used to trapping more in volume for our TNR clinicb, because I was viewing it through the volume TNR lens. Once I stepped back and was like, yeah, actually this will totally add up, it was great. 

We schedule these for days when we aren't trapping for volume TNR AND we were able to start getting in low income pets from our TNR locations. You know, the dense complexes or mobile home communities where you have the population  of semiferal/outside cats and the indoor outdoor pets that are still breeding. THAT was a complete game changer regarding these locations. Our volume TNR clinic won't allow tame cats and the wait for the low cost/voucher type s/n surgeries for the public is incredibly long . So when we have these Monday or Wednesday appointments, we can easily gather tame cats for these spots the night before. These spots are also good for that elusive feral that isn't cooperating or when you are pulling out all the stops to finish a location. We can trap them without being limited by knowing "'if I catch him this day, I am holding him at least a week".  That doesn't happen. It allows us more freedom, which is great because most of us work M-F. 

We are pretty new too! Coming up on 4 years as a 501c3 and once people see what you are doing, they are much more likely to support your efforts. 

We had a vet reach out once, they liked what we were doing, wanted to help build a partnership. We were so excited and met with them. Turns out they only wanted to fix the kittens we were trapping at colonies for, like $230 each and adopt them out. We don't fix kittens because we don't adopt - we transfer all our kittens to a couple rescue/shelter orgs in the area and they fix them. That allows us to stay true to our TNR mission. But yeah, that price was laughable for us. So you have to be sure you are in alignment with the vet partners you build. But we have found many that want to be on board with these efforts. 

Good luck!
 

Hi Karen,

Oh wow! Thank you so very much! We have traps & dividers we could loan a vet to "practice"  What a brilliant idea I've never thought about. We're already looking into getting rabies vac & possibly even anesthesia donated for vet to hold for us  to get cost down. The price we were given is too high & reduces the number of cats we can TNR. But if we could get that cost down to equal our TNR vet cost, that could really increase our yearly by 50-100 cats! 

Also an eye opener is total 50-100 cats/yr  taking  just 1 or 2 cats in a week. I originally shunned that vs taking 16 cats a week to our TNR vet. We trap every Sunday & Wednesday, transport to our TNR vet every Monday & Thursday. We sanitize traps Tuesday, so we need that extra day. Our vet TNR Monday-Thursday, so don't want to trade 8 cats for 1 or 2. If we could get a local vet to take 2-3 cats on Friday....hmmm. Something to look into!

Thank you so much for sharing what you all do. Your ideas can really help us expand from citizen trappers to our nonprofit TNR group (we're in our 2nd year). This is also the first thread I've come across specifically for community cats and I think the first I've commented or participated in. I can't thank you enough for responding so quickly & the wealth of information you've shared. You're the best!

Hi Jan - 
One thing we did when we were talking with private vet clinics (the ones that didn't do much, if any, rescue work) was we loaned them a trap to practice sedation through the wires and gave them a trap fork. The vets were savvy but the staff were really intimidated, so this really helped them feel more confident in working with feral/community cats. Even though this vet only gets either 1F or 2M in once a week, it does make a difference. That's 50-100 cats a year. Another one schedules us 2x weekly (1F or 2M each visit) so that's another 100- 200 cats.
Other techniques we use to cut our costs, some clinics just donate the vaccines to us, others will donate just the Rabies but we are allowed to have our own vaccines held at their clinic. Same with flea meds. One clinic that does work with rescue orgs lets us hold our microchips, combo tests and other supplies at their facility too. 
It all adds up. We have found that many vets want to help more than they are but aren't sure how to go about it or who to partner with. They don't want to advertise low cost at a total price break or they will be innundated with requests, and some rescue orgs can be unreasonable, rude or difficult to work with. We get them all the info in advance and made it as easy for them as possible. 

We are a small all-volunteer TNR group also. One of our biggest challenges is we have no local resources. No shelter, no veterinarians who can perform TNR, no local government support.  As an example, our parish's (county for the rest of the world) ordinances requiring rabies vaccinations for dogs & running at large was last updated right after World War II. Ridiculous. We began as citizen trappers, but last year we went non-profit, which has helped a lot. We were able to secure TNR discounts & increase the number of cats we can take in at one time. Both usually reserved for shelters & nonprofits. Because we don't have local vets, we travel to a TNR non-profit vet in another parish. Local vets are too expensive & scheduling difficult. We've not used them (wish we could) because of this & I'm not sure they could handle a feral. Also, just one or 2 cats whereas we can take 16 cats per week out of Parish.

We are a Trap - Neuter - Return organization,  we support caregivers with cat food, traps and spay/neuter vouchers.  Are there other organizations that support TNR programs? I would like to start a discussion on how how your program works, any suggestions? experiences that you would like to share?