Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR)

Getting the neighborhood involved in TNR is what has worked the best for ongoing control. To get additional information or borrow a trap, please contact your local municipal animal shelter. The Nextdoor application is quickly becoming a leading tool for coordinating neighborhood solutions. Numerous videos are available on TNR, by googling TNR Video or click here.

If you live in the Memphis area, Spay Memphis is extremely reasonably priced and has great information on their website for spay/neuter of your personal pets. For community or feral cats, please click here. Spay Memphis loans traps at no charge. Please visit their website for additional information as they may have grant funds available to help with the cost. 

How does TNR work?

The Pet Compassion Center educates the public and facilitates Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR) with those who care for community, feral and stray cats and with veterinary clinics who perform spay/neuters, provide rabies vaccines and parasite treatments. Their left ears are tipped to show that the cat has been spayed / neutered and cannot reproduce. We follow guidelines that are supported by leading experts, including, but not limited to the ASPCABest Friends Animal Society, Alley Cat Allies and the Humane Society of the US. Additional information can be found by clicking on the links of those agencies.

Spay Memphis is the leading TNR expert in the area. Learn more here. The following program has been implemented in the Memphis areas, but can easily be adjusted for any area:

1.  Communicate on Nextdoor to get your neighborhood involved and ensure feeding is controlled while trapping.

2.  Check to see if your neighborhood has an account at Spay Memphis and if not, set one up.

3.  Post the need to recruit local leads to donate, help trap, stage, transport and recover. Ask those feeding the strays to identify themselves as they need them to hold off on feeding during the process.

4.  Borrow traps from Spay Memphis or request traps from your municipal shelter through the neighborhood watch program.

5.  Begin trapping and use masking tape to mark each trap with the address the cat came from and write down the information in a log.

6.  Transport, stage and recover.

7.  Communicate success

Ask neighbors to monitor their neighborhood and post pets on Nextdoor if lost or found so they can get to their owners quickly. Nextdoor also has a Pet Directory where pictures of pets and community cats can be posted to build awareness.

YouTube has great instructional videos search feral cat trapping or following the link below for Kitten Lady video:

https://youtu.be/wF_omFE7Etc