Residents Have More Options When it Comes to Dealing With Stray Cats

Unfortunately, stray cats are a familiar site in every city, including Cerritos and Artesia.

Last month, the City of Cerritos issued a news release outlining residents' options for feral cat control as follows:

The City of Cerritos contracts for animal control with the Long Beach Animal Care Services Bureau.  Here, residents can rent cat traps for a $100 deposit, which is 100% refundable, given that the traps are undamaged and returned with 30 days.

Once a cat is trapped, residents can relinquish the cat to animal services. Cats that have identification will be returned to their owners and tame cats may be put up for adoption. 

However, there are some important facts that every citizen should know about when it comes to sending stray cats to shelters.

Issues with Bringing Feral Cats to the Shelter:

• The vast majority of these cats are put to sleep
• Less than 2% of these cats are returned to their owners (according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy (NCPPSP)
• Unless you manage the resources that help these cats propagate (food and shelter), this process alone will not stop your cat problems

TNR: A Different Option for Feral Cat Control

Another option citizens have when dealing with feral cat control is the Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) program. In TNR, feral cats are trapped, spayed or neutered, and then returned to the exact location where they were trapped.

Local organizations such as FixNation and Best Friends CatNippers promote and support TNR programs. Together, these organizations have spayed or neutered over 60,000 cats. 

"Trap-Neuter-Return is the only humane, effective way to reduce the homeless cat population, so that people and cats can peacefully co-exist," FixNation's Vice President of Operations Kim Senn told Patch. "We make it as easy as possible so that people (and cats) can get the help they need."

FixNation offers the following services completely free of cost to the caregivers of homeless cats:

• Spay or Neuter Surgery
• Flea Treatment
• Vaccines
• Antibiotics and Pain Medication
• Ear Tipping (for identification purposes)
• Humane Traps and Education on Managing Feral Cat Populations

Benefits of TNR:

• Trapped cats are not put to sleep
• Overtime, the number of feral cats are reduced
• Feral cats continue to control mice and rat population in your neighborhood 
• Feral cats receive professional veterinary care
• Undesirable behavior (howling, fighting, spraying of urine, and birthing of kittens) stop or are  severely reduced once a cat is spayed or neutered

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For more information on feral cats, TNR, or how you can help, please visit the FixNation and Best Friends CatNippers official websites.

For more information about the Long Beach Animal Care Services Bureau's policies on feral cats, please refer to the agency's feral cat flyer.