Organize your Community for Neighborhood TNR


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Organize your Community for Neighborhood TNR Getting your community involved in a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) effort is a great pro-active step in protecting and improving the lives of cats. Here’s how to get started: Hold a How to Help Community Cats Workshop (or have a screening of our webinar “Helping Cats in Your Community“). Get the word out by chatting with your neighbors, posting on your local listserv or social network, and adding it to community calendars and bulletin boards. Recruit volunteers. Don’t do it alone! Involve members of your community along the way. Break down what needs to be done into small, manageable tasks. For example, if two people trap, someone else can drive the cats to the clinic, someone else can drive them back from the clinic, someone else can feed the cats one day a week, and so on. Make a plan for funding your TNR effort. At the minimum, you’ll need to pay for spay and neuter surgeries, but you may also need to purchase your own humane box traps, deterrents, and other equipment. Plan for how you’ll cover the expenses. Our Financial Resources and Fundraising Tips will help. Launch your TNR program. After all of your planning and community collaboration, it’s time to TNR some cats! Just follow our Step-by-Step Guide to Trap-Neuter-Return. Protect cats by advocating for humane policies where you live. Stay up-to-date on your community’s policies and laws that affect cats, and take an active role to ensure cats are protected. Our Advocacy Toolkit will show you how. Keep it going. A feline-friendly community isn’t a destination, it’s a journey! Continue your TNR efforts, advocate for humane policies, and collaborate with your neighbors to ensure cats’ well-being. This really puts the “community” in community cats! By involving the community up front in your TNR effort you’ll have a more sustainable program and avoid many potential conflicts down the road.

Getting your community involved in a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) effort is a great pro-active step in protecting and improving the lives of cats. Here’s how to get started:

Hold a How to Help Community Cats Workshop (or have a screening of our webinar “Helping Cats in Your Community“). Get the word out by chatting with your neighbors, posting on your local listserv or social network, and adding it to community calendars and bulletin boards.
Recruit volunteers. Don’t do it alone! Involve members of your community along the way. Break down what needs to be done into small, manageable tasks. For example, if two people trap, someone else can drive the cats to the clinic, someone else can drive them back from the clinic, someone else can feed the cats one day a week, and so on.
Make a plan for funding your TNR effort. At the minimum, you’ll need to pay for spay and neuter surgeries, but you may also need to purchase your own humane box traps, deterrents, and other equipment. Plan for how you’ll cover the expenses. Our Financial Resources and Fundraising Tips will help.
Launch your TNR program. After all of your planning and community collaboration, it’s time to TNR some cats! Just follow our Step-by-Step Guide to Trap-Neuter-Return.
Protect cats by advocating for humane policies where you live. Stay up-to-date on your community’s policies and laws that affect cats, and take an active role to ensure cats are protected. Our Advocacy Toolkit will show you how.
Keep it going. A feline-friendly community isn’t a destination, it’s a journey! Continue your TNR efforts, advocate for humane policies, and collaborate with your neighbors to ensure cats’ well-being.

This really puts the “community” in community cats! By involving the community up front in your TNR effort you’ll have a more sustainable program and avoid many potential conflicts down the road.