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?