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WHAT IS TNR?
TNR stands for Trap-Neuter-Release. It's a program that activist groups are pushing to release stray and feral cats into Tulsa neighborhoods. Currently, there are laws preventing abandonment, but this well-funded group is lobbying the council and Mayor Bynum to change the law to allow feral cat colonies into our neighborhoods and backyards.
TNR advocates claim the program will reduce feral cat populations, but it has been proven to do just the opposite: introducing new cat populations, increasing cat abandonment, upsetting delicate ecosystems, violating property rights, and most of all, introducing harmful diseases into the community.
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The U.S. Department of Interior, the CDC, wildlife conservation groups, animal rights groups like PETA, and hundreds of nonpartisan organizations across the nation are against TNR because of the dramatic harm it causes.
PLEASE JOIN US BY SAYING NO TO TNR IN TULSA.
Trap-Neuter-Release was tried in Broward County, Florida, where feral cat-borne diseases sharply increased, including confirmed Rabies cases spiking nearly 10-fold. The CDC found that outdoor cats are the #1 cause of rabies and spread unique diseases such as Bartonella and Toxoplasmosis - which spread exclusively through felines -- namely feral cats.
TNR does not keep feral cats up to date on vaccines.
TNR cannot keep track of feral cat colonies, which cause feral cats to rapidly spread diseases across communities.
Toxoplasmosis is the second leading cause of death among foodborne illnesses in the U.S. Infection poses grave risks to pregnant women, babies, and the immunocompromised. This parasite exclusively lives and spreads through infected cats via their fecal matter, where the parasite can survive for years in family sandboxes, plants, gardens, and rain gutters. The CDC has issued strong warnings against TNR after studies found it introduced community exposure to toxoplasmosis, rabies, Bartonella, and other flea-borne diseases.
Mosquito-borne diseases increase with TNR according to studies conducted on feral cats. They found feral cats to decimate bird populations. As a result, this can lead to uncontrolled mosquito populations, increasing the risk of Malaria, Zika virus, and other parasites.
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Bartonella (also known as cat-scratch disease) spreads through feral cat fleas and ticks, which cause serious and often life-long neuropsychiatric illnesses, linked to adult-onset schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders.
TNR would give feral cats legal protections to your property
Homeowners cannot remove TNR cats -- only send them to get updated shots. Feral cats are then Trapped-Neutered (and) Released back to your private property.
TNR advocates brand them "community cats" because the feral cats quickly find and take over community neighborhoods, backyards, and parks, without residents' permission. Cat colonies, however, have been shown for decades to attract other cats, as well as unwanted predators and pests such as raccoons, rats, coyotes, and even bobcats, which endanger infants and small children in the community.
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TNR prioritizes feral cat dwellings over private property, despite the disease risks and property damage they inevitably cause.
Homeowners cannot call an animal shelter to remove cat colonies from their property once shelters are full. Even if individual feral cats are removed, other feral cats move in, leaving homeowners in an endless game of cat-and-mouse. This leads to overrun cat colonies and property depreciation.
Watch this video of a Jacksonville, FL man complaining of a "Cat Explosion" to the Mayor's office. Dozens of TNR cats have taken over his community.
TNR has been studied by the U.S. Department of Interior, Animal Rights Groups, such as PETA, and dozens of cities, whom all found TNR is inhumane to cats and does not decrease feral populations -- rather it increases them and spreads disease, ecological degradation, and compounds the root cause of cat abandonment.
TNR has been shown to increase cat populations.
There has not been a single peer-reviewed study showing feral reductions. Virtually all scientific literature points to increased cat populations, disease, and ecological deterioration.
The city of Saratoga Springs, Utah 100-page study of TNR found, “Overwhelmingly, the scientific literature indicates that TNR programs not only fail to effectively reduce feral cat populations but also adversely affect the health and well-being of cats, humans, other animals, and ecosystems.” Again and again, we discovered that the evidence-based data contradicted claims that TNR is a viable solution to the management of feral and free-roaming cats.”
Stillwater, Oklahoma's peer-reviewed study of TNR found, " ​Our research adds further evidence to the growing body of scientific literature indicating that TNR is ineffective in reducing cat populations.”
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A peer-reviewed study of active TNR programs in San Diego County, CA and Alachua County, FL found "In both counties, results of analyses did not indicate a consistent reduction in per capita growth, the population multiplier, or the proportion of female cats that were pregnant.
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The CDC peer-reviewed analysis found TNR fails at reducing cat populations yet sharply increases the likelihood of disease spread throughout the human community.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Florida Department of Environmental Studies found TNR fails to reduce feral cat populations but rather increases them over time.
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Animal rights groups like PETA, found TNR to be inhumane to cats, "cats—“managed” or not—suffer and die horrible deaths because they must fend for themselves outdoors.
The National Wildlife Federation, U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife, and dozens of conservation groups are united firmly against TNR due to the devastating ecological consequences of introducing new invasive predators (feral cats) to bird populations as well as the growing disease spread to endangered species.
1.3 to 4 billion U.S. birds are killed by feral cats annually.
Outdoor cats have wiped out 63 species from the planet, including 40 bird species -- and growing.
A 2013 study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute found that free-ranging cats (mostly unowned) are the single largest human-caused threat to wildlife.
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International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists free-roaming cats as one of the world’s worst non-native invasive species.
The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center conducted a 50-year study, finding feral cats are the #1 contributor to rapidly declining bird populations globally.
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The National Wildlife Federation found "free-ranging cats and feral cats are not part of American natural ecosystems & their predation on a vast number of mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and arthropod species compromise biological diversity"
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A 2016 study that evaluated the impacts of invasive predators, Kauskik Narasimhan, a New Orleans resident and PhD student in Ecology at Tulane University, said he found it "astounding that cats have been linked to 63 extinctions, 40 of which are birds."
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We highly recommend watching the Discovery+ documentary "Feral" which highlights the existential danger feral cats are posing to endangered species in Hawaii.