Neighbor Relations - by Jesse Oldham, ASPCA - Winter 2009 - NYC Eartips

New York City Feral Cat Initiative - Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

The ASPCA's "Neighbor Relations" slide show can help

TNR caretakers learn how to be good ambassadors

for the cats in their colonies.

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Neighbor Relations

by Jesse Oldham, ASPCA

Do you have to talk to your neighbors about feral cats? Need to problem-solve a nuisance complaint or find a new spot for a feeding station? Community outreach is often our least favorite part of Trap-Neuter-Return, but we can make it a little easier on ourselves if we try to look at it as objectively as possible and observe some basic components of public speaking and conflict resolution.

At the Feral Cat Caretaker Boot Camp! in December, I presented a workshop and role-playing exercise with Aimee Hartmann on this topic that was very well-received. View the slide show of the presentation. Slide 20 provides additional resources for your continued growth as an ambassador for feral cats!

About the Author

Jesse Oldham is Senior Administrative Director for Community Outreach at the ASPCA. Additionally, Jesse founded and directed Slope Street Cats, a Brooklyn-based non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to promoting and facilitating TNR for feral cats from 2004 until its phase-out in 2009. Slope Street Cats provided public TNR education and feral cat caretaker workshops and operated a successful TNR trap bank in Brooklyn. Jesse remains active in the NYC TNR community by continuing to teach TNR certification workshops on behalf of the NYC Feral Cat Initiative and continues to develop and facilitate feral cat education and information resources as needed within the community with the ASPCA and NYC Feral Cat Initiative.

Photos courtesy of Meredith Weiss and NeighborhoodCats, unless otherwise noted

NYC Feral Cat Initiative • c/o Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals • 244 Fifth Avenue, Suite R290 • New York, NY 10001 • (212) 330-0033 • info@NYCFeralCat.org