An interdisciplinary team of animal welfare professionals, wildlife experts, veterinarians, economists, and others developed a robust, realistic computer simulation model of free-roaming cat population (FRC) dynamics. The model considered several common approaches: Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), removal for adoption, removal for euthanasia, removal with a combination of adoption and euthanasia, combined TNR and adoption, episodic culling, and taking no action. Costs, based on detailed surveys of public and private agencies, were evaluated for each approach.

We will translate the modeling results into lessons that you can take back to your community to help improve the effectiveness of humane FRC population management in both population impact and cost. Among the findings that we will discuss are:
- How and why high-intensity TNR is the most effective and cost-efficient non-lethal approach over time.
- Why low-intensity TNR, which is commonly practiced, costs a lot more than high-intensity TNR relative to its impact on reducing cat populations over time. 
- How different management approaches yield dramatically different numbers of “preventable” deaths, particularly of kittens. 
- Why it is so important to “frontload” TNR efforts and start big, rather than approaching as a small pilot. 
- The importance of outreach and support to reduce abandonment and immigration of cats and kittens, as this can sabotage the success of any intervention.
- Why monitoring population numbers is as essential as the population control intervention itself, and how to do it.

Key Learnings :

1. Among commonly used population control methods for free-roaming cats, high-intensity Trap-Neuter-Return is the best way to achieve cost-effective, long-term population reduction with the fewest preventable deaths in the process.

2. To achieve high-intensity Trap-Neuter-Return, it is important to “front-load” sterilization when most cats are still intact. This means planning to invest the most time, resources, and money at the start of an intervention, as well as determining the right geography for the plan to succeed.

3. To achieve the most from a population management intervention, you cannot limit your work to sterilizing cats. It is vital to combine with outreach and support to the community to reduce abandonment and immigration of cats and kittens into free-roaming cat colonies.
 

This Session is sponsored by Royal Canin