Solving the overpopulation of feral and free-roaming cats and improving their lives depends upon the dedication and commitment of educated caregivers to provide compassionate care while implementing humane population control. Caring for a feral cat colony has tremendous benefits to caregivers, neighbors, and the cats. If a caregiver follows proper colony management procedures, what emerges, is a responsible, well-maintained colony, and cats that are “good neighbors”.
A feral cat caregiver provides food and shelter, monitors for newcomers to the colony, monitors the health of the cats or other problems, etc. The caregiver humanely traps the cats in a feral cat colony and gets them spay or neutered, vaccinated for rabies and distemper and ear tipped for identification. They then return the cats to their territory. The caregivers’ success requires support, services, training, networking and supplemental resources to provide quality long-term care.
Feral Cat FOCUS supports feral cat caregivers throughout Western New York. These are some of the ways that we help:
- Project a strong unifying voice for feral cat caregivers and their colonies
- Education and training on TNVR (Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return)
- Education and training on proper colony management
- Humane trap loan program for TNVR
- Cage loan program for sick feral cats that need further care or to hold feral cats for a couple extra days during winter months for recovery following spay/neuter surgery
- Access to low-cost spay/neuter surgery in a safe and humane environment
- Subsidized spay/neuter programs (when money is available)
- Resources – food and supplies (when available)
- Volunteers to handle special needs
- Intervention on behalf of caregivers
- Communication network and support resources for caregivers