We conduct monthly trap/neuter/vaccinate/release (TNVR) clinics at local veterinary hospitals, all taking place on Sundays when the hospitals are normally closed.

Absolutely NO PETS are allowed to participate in the program. Only cats with a source of food but no "formal address" or owner. These are kitties eking out existences on farms, in inner-city neighborhoods, and behind small businesses. They are subject to endless pregnancies, disease, and sometimes, the whims of cruel strangers who don't appreciate their potential.

The idea isn't new. Over ten thousand cats have been helped in this way over a span of seven years by the Feral Cat Coalition (FCC) of San Diego, California. The FCC, which the Feral Cat Friends emulates in many ways, has effected a 50% drop in the number of cats abandoned at humane societies in their area. They have saved shelters many thousands of dollars that otherwise would have been put toward euthanasia!

TNVR programs compliment available adoption programs and work better than programs that simply trap and euthanize cats to address the overpopulation problem because:

(1) There aren't enough good adoptive homes for every cat
       in central New York and ignoring the others only makes
       matters worse.

(2) Elimination of cats from a colony through euthanasia
       simply leaves room for other cats (or skunks or raccoons)
       to take their place. Few colonies every get eliminated
       this way. Because cats are territorial, the presence of
       healthy neutered cats keeps other animals from bringing
       disease into an area.

(3) Neutered cats are much less likely to fight and mark their
       territory with urine and they won’t be breeding. Simply
       put, they make better neighbors, earning their keep by
       controlling the small rodent population.

(4) Each unspayed female allowed to have one to two litters
       a year can add 250-700 cats to the area in the course of
       only four years!