NYC Eartips: Fall/Holiday 2010

A TNR Safety Refresher

by Meredith Weiss, NYC Feral Cat Initiative and Neighborhood Cats

Thank you all for your continuing commitment to reduce the overpopulation crisis and improve the lives of NYC's feral and free-roaming cats through TNR. Births of thousands of litters have been prevented, countless cats are enjoying healthier, non-reproductive lives, and scores of kittens have been rescued and adopted! We are making a difference because of your dedication. Whether you've been practicing TNR for two months or twenty years, we ask that you read through this review — in the interest of the cats, of course.

ASPCA Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinics and Mass Spay Days

Use of the ASPCA Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinics and Mass Spay Days is intended for TNR-certified caretakers only. If you, a TNR-certified person, allow an uncertified person to use your spots or to bring cats to your private rescue clinic (as almost everyone does), you are responsible for the safety and well-being of those cats, not the uncertified person.

TNR Review: Basics

Planning

Planning is crucial to successful TNR projects. Count the cats, determine the feeding times, contact other feeders, and note any pregnant, sick, or friendly cats or kittens. Cats should be on a regular feeding schedule — same time and same place every day or night. Post "TNR in Progress" flyers in the neighborhood.

Holding Space

Find a warm, dry, secure space to hold the cats pre- and post-surgery (2–3 days before, 2–5 days after), such as a basement, garage (in summer months), spare room, or not-so-spare room. Tables are highly recommended, but the floor is acceptable. Holding cats outside is not safe under any circumstances! Cats must remain in traps to be fed, and the traps cleaned twice a day, always using dividers.

Traps and Spay/Neuter Appointments

Spay/neuter appointments are in very high demand and fill up very quickly (within a couple of days of the schedule coming out). The ASPCA Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinic schedule comes out on or about the third Monday of the month for the following month. Start calling a few days ahead to make sure you don't miss out.

For ASPCA Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinics and Mass Spay Days, contact:

Call (877) SPAY-NYC (877-772-9692), option 6 for TNR, to schedule an appointment for your ferals on the TNR/Rescue Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinics. The SPAY-NYC call center is open Monday–Friday from 3:00–8:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Saturday.

Please let the TNR scheduling center know as soon as possible if you are unable to use all of your reserved spots. There is usually a waitlist. On a recent mobile clinic, there were 15 empty spots because of no-shows, and no one canceled! We do not want this to happen.

Reserve traps after reserving your spay/neuter appointments. Only use traps with a removable rear door. Borrow a couple of more traps than the number of cats you're after, and make sure you get two dividers with each trap. More Info: Loans & Rentals of Traps, Dividers & Cages.

Use 6" x 9" cardboard taped to trip plate as an extender (unless using the newer Neighborhood Cats traps with trip plate already wider, or the brown Tru-Catch traps). Skipping this step will invariably result in missed cats.

Label each trap with your name, best phone number, and brief description of the cat. If the cat is not to be eartipped, indicate "No Eartip" on the label. For all the other details (Revolution, FVRCP, etc.) use the ASPCA intake form (repeat "No Eartip" on the form). If you have any questions, ask the vet tech.

Trapping

Leave a minimum of two days but preferably three days to trap. Set traps at the time(s) the cats are used to coming for food. Suggested bait: mackerel, Figaro brand tuna, canned tuna, sardines, rotisserie chicken cut in small pieces, or Kentucky Fried Chicken (original recipe). Drizzle juice or zigzag teeny pieces of bait leading into the trap. Set traps with a sheet tucked into the handles of each trap so it's there and ready to cover the trapped cat. Count and number the traps you set out and, if necessary, create a map of the location of the traps. Make sure each and every trap is accounted for before you "wrap it up for the day or night."

DON'T trap the morning of the clinic! Avoid trapping the night before the clinic!

TNR DON'Ts and NEVERs

NEVER leave traps unattended, particularly if there are raccoons in your neighborhood after dark. Raccoons are almost everywhere these days, and they can harm (or worse) a trapped cat, and even can mangle the trap itself. This danger can't be emphasized enough!

NEVER leave set traps to be checked by an inexperienced/uncertified person!

Most untrained people:

a) don't understand the importance of covering the trap immediately;

b) may be afraid to touch the trap;

c) may go out for the day/night;

d) may forget;

e) won't know what to do if something goes wrong.

NEVER use inexperienced/uncertified people for trapping, unless they are accompanied (and closely monitored) by an experienced/ certified person!

NEVER use carriers for feral cats!

If you have friendly cats or kittens who may go into carriers, when you bring them to a mobile clinic, DON'T stack the carriers. If they fall over, the mechanism securing the door can dislodge and the cat/kitten will escape.

DON'T attempt to trap several kittens in one trap unless you're familiar with the bottle method and the kittens are 10 weeks or younger. Bring a divider with you. Only small (6–8 weeks) kittens should be held together in a trap; if cats are older, each one needs his or her own trap. When bringing them to the clinic for neutering, kittens must be healthy and weigh at least two pounds (usually this is 8–12 weeks of age). You can bring two kittens in one trap or carrier, but you must have individual traps or carriers for each kitten when you pick them up.

DON'T overwhelm yourself with feral kittens! Socializing takes work and good homes are hard to come by. Generally accepted guidelines recommend 5–10 weeks as the optimal age to rescue kittens for socialization. Past this age, taming becomes more difficult with each passing week.

If you rescue kittens in the fall, please be sure you can commit to socializing and placing them. A kitten brought indoors early in October cannot be put out late in November; he or she will not have acclimated to the changing weather by growing a thicker coat, and won't be prepared for winter.

DON'T release cats too soon after surgery! The recommended recovery time is two days for males, three days for non-pregnant females, and five days for late-aborted females! A lactating cat may be released after 24–36 hours if she is doing well. If the cats are properly cared for in the appropriate traps, the vast majority of them can deal with this recovery time. It's not true that the cats can't cope with being held for several days; you will find a cat like that only very, very rarely.

Part of our responsibility is to see the trapping through safely, not to rush the cats back outside. Cats should eat something before they're released. If you're unsure of a cat's demeanor or have any post-op issues, call (877) SPAY-NYC (option 5). This line is answered 24 hours a day.

DON'T trap the morning of the clinic! Not giving the trapped cat a chance to acclimate to her predicament can cause complications and even death. In most cases, a cat trapped the morning of (or even the night before) the clinic has had food withheld for several days and has no opportunity to eat anything before surgery. This puts him or her at an unacceptable risk. It's better to be a couple of cats short on the clinic than to put lives in jeopardy. This isn't a numbers game — each cat's life matters.

DON'T return any cats outside without an eartip. If a cat is friendly and may get a home at some point, it follows that he or she also may not get a home. Any adopter worth adopting to will adopt an eartipped cat if that's the cat they want. If an uneartipped friendly cat ends up at AC&C, it will most likely be euthanized because it wasn't eartipped. Don't count on a rescue group pulling it out for adoption.

DON'T remove the sheets or blankets from the traps until you actually load the cats onto the mobile clinic. Especially during the cold months, try to keep the cats in your heated vehicle until the clinic is ready for them. Don't set them on the sidewalk in cold, windy, inclement weather; they may be waiting there for a half-hour or longer.

DON'T attempt to clean a trap outside. If you discover, upon arrival at a mobile clinic or Mass Spay Day, that the trap is dirty, don't clean it. The cat and the vet techs can deal with it. Even if you have dividers with you, don't open a trap outside on the street.

TNR DOs

DO provide winter shelter for the cats. More-than-adequate, simple shelters can be made from polystyrene (Styrofoam) fish boxes or steak boxes. Remember, any shelter is better than no shelter at all. More info: Feral Cat Colony Care: Winter Care.

DO report any bad, strange, or unorthodox practices by other TNR-rescuers you may witness during your trapping experience to Meredith (meredith@NYCFeralCat.org) or Lois (lois@NYCFeralCat.org) of the NYC Feral Cat Initiative.

DO report problems experienced on the ASPCA clinics to Kimberly Smith (kimberlys@aspca.org) and Aimee Christian (achristian@aspca.org). We've been assured that there will be no repercussions if you report problems such as an unexplained death or seemingly minor (but important) issues like the trap doors not being securely closed and locked when you pick up the cats, or cats not being fully awake at pick-up time. You will not be "blacklisted" from using the clinics. If you don't report the problems (with the date and location of the clinic), you can't expect improvements.

And finally, DO remember to drop a line to the ASPCA about your positive experiences on the mobile clinic or at Mass Spay Day. They work very hard, too, and will appreciate your compliments! Kimberly Smith (kimberlys@aspca.org) and Aimee Christian (achristian@aspca.org).