The Jefferson City Council recently heard about a program to help curtail an ongoing issue in the City of feral cats.

Associate Director of Animal Shelter and Animal Control Engagement Alice Burton with Alley Cat Allies from Maryland gave a presentation to the Council on the “trap-neuter-return” (TNR) program. She explained that the program humanely traps the cats, spays and/or neuters them, eartips them and then returns the cats to the outdoors. Burton pointed out the benefits were that it reduced the cat population, improved the cat’s life, they became better neighbors and were calmer.

Jefferson City Administrator Mike Palmer says there is a cost to the program to have the cats spayed and neutered, but Burton noted there were grant funds available. However, if the City doesn’t get the funds, payment would go back to the caregiver or possibly the veterinarian. He states that it would also require an ordinance change from the City if the TNR program were to be implemented here.

“Currently our ordinance prohibits ‘cats at large.’ To have this type of program it still would be allowed to be ‘at large’ it would be taken care of as far as either neutered or spayed so they couldn’t reproduce.”

As for now, Palmer explains the next steps.

“We’ll figure out which committee to take it to or they just form a new one just temporarily to take a look at this very issue. Because it has been a hot issue. I think it’s very important, the City is not sitting on this issue, they’re gathering information and they hope to have some sort of resolution to this problem of feral cats.”

This similar program was pitched to the Des Moines City Council and they recently made an ordinance change to allow for TNR to be implemented by March 1st.