Disinformation costs millions of cats their lives every year. Help us Share the Truth to stop it.
Though community cats and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs thrive in communities around the world, both face dangerously misinformed portrayals in the media and other avenues. It goes beyond just unpleasant words; this misinformation fuels the creation and continuation of cruel and lethal policies against cats and kittens in communities, parks, shelters, and more.
As the only global organization dedicated to protecting and improving all cats’ lives, Alley Cat Allies is committed to setting the record straight. But we need your voice. By educating people on the truth about community cats and combatting the false claims, we can stop the killing together.
FACT: Cats live outdoors—always have, always will.
The truth is cats have lived and thrived outdoors for thousands of years, and it is their natural environment and their home. In fact, cats lived nearly exclusively outdoors until the invention of kitty litter in the 1940s sparked a trend to have cats as indoor companions. The reality is cats will always be outdoors, belong outdoors, and are instinctively bonded to their territories and feline families.
Policies that impound, and inevitably kill, cats who live outdoors under the misguided notion that they “belong” indoors are fundamentally flawed, cruel, ineffective, and not sustainable. Community cats, or unowned cats who live outdoors, are generally not candidates for adoption as they are not socialized to people. They cannot adapt to an indoor home…and that is not a problem to solve.
Community cats should be left to thrive in their outdoor homes and provided support through Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). TNR acknowledges community cats’ nature, biology, and inherent value as beings deserving of respect and protection by allowing them to continue their lives in familiar surroundings while ensuring their population stabilizes.
The truth is that it’s natural for cats to live outdoors. Learn more about the natural history of the cat and how cats are biologically adapted to living outside.
FACT: Cats are not the real threat to wildlife—human development is.
The truth is that cats have an important place in ecosystems, and whenever they are removed in large numbers, the consequences are dire—not just for the cats but for wildlife. Cats are not a major threat to wildlife species, endangered or otherwise, and the “science” that claims such is heavily flawed and funded by fringe interests and biased parties. As we have seen time and time again, catch and kill leads to nothing but an endless cycle of expensive and morally bankrupt slaughter that does not benefit cats, community, or wildlife.
Several prominent ecologists point to the fact that cats play an important role in many ecosystems, often stepping in to fill the place of now extinct or greatly diminished small predators.
As for the main threats to wildlife, leading biologists and environmental watchdogs agree: human-led activities, including climate change, habitat destruction, and development, are far and away the number one cause of wildlife depletion.
We can protect both cats and wildlife. The interests are not mutually exclusive. By advocating for stronger TNR programs backed by local governments AND policies that curb human-led activities that are the true threats to wildlife—like habitat destruction and pollution—we improve the lives of cats, wildlife, and us all.
The truth is cats are not a major threat to wildlife species—human development is. Find out more about the relationship between cats and wildlife.
FACT: Community cats can live long and healthy lives outdoors.
Despite TNR opponents and cat opposition claiming that community cats suffer terribly, living short and brutal lives outdoors, the facts say otherwise. Community cats are generally healthy and in good condition and live as long and fulfilling of lives as indoor cats. They have equally low rates of disease as indoor cats as well.
If the cats’ health is a concern, TNR is the primary way community cats receive vaccinations for rabies and treatment for any other medical issues. Spay and neuter in itself also improves cats’ health by removing the stresses of mating and pregnancy and preventing certain reproductive cancers.
Make no mistake, TNR opposition’s misinformed portrayal of cats outdoors as inherently suffering has only one motive: to justify endless and ineffective mass killing schemes against community cats.
The truth is community cats are generally healthy and thrive in their outdoor homes. Find out more about how community cats live happily outdoors.
FACT: Cats are not a public health threat.
Not surprisingly, people who advocate for the removal of all outdoor cats like to inflate and distort public health concerns stemming from outdoor cats. You are more likely to catch an infectious disease from the person in line with you at the grocery store than from a cat. Research supports what we all know: cats and people can live healthily side-by-side, as we have for thousands of years.
Additionally, vaccinations provided during TNR improve the cats’ health and address community health concerns—though it’s critical to note that cats are extremely unlikely to spread rabies, toxoplasmosis, or any other diseases. Despite scaremongering about toxoplasmosis, for example, people have a far higher chance of contract toxoplasmosis from eating undercooked meat than they are from a cat’s litter box.
The truth is that community cats are not a public health threat. Find out more about how cats are healthy members of our communities.
FACT: Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is the only humane and effective approach to community cats.
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TNR is the ONLY evidence-based, humane, and effective approach to cats outdoors. Through TNR, cats are humanely trapped, brought to a veterinarian to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and eartipped for identification, then are returned to their outdoor homes. The “neuter” in TNR means fewer kittens born outdoors and the reduction of behaviors associated with mating—including yowling, spraying, fighting and roaming. The success of community TNR programs is studied and documented.
Developing objective, science-first best practices aimed at humane care for animals, building peaceful communities, and protecting all species should be the top priority in our modern world. That is why TNR has become mainstream practice. Beyond saving cats’ lives and respecting their biology and natural place in the environment, TNR is sound public policy that reduces calls to animal control, reduces the number of cats entering shelters, and reduces taxpayer expense, all while meeting the demands of the public for effective, meaningful, AND lifesaving action for cats in their communities.
TNR opponents’ proposed “alternatives” to TNR come down to rounding up and killing cats over and over and over again. However, trapping cats and “euthanizing” them in shelters is not some untested idea; it was the status quo for decades and failed miserably due to the Vacuum Effect—a phenomenon in which other cats move in to take advantage of the resources that sustained the colony that was removed. Alley Cat Allies launched TNR into the mainstream against a backdrop of endless, futile, and cruel catch and kill cycles in the United States, and we were successful because communities recognized the need for change. They saw that compassionate and humane approaches worked.
The truth is that TNR works and killing doesn’t. Learn more about the lifesaving power of TNR.
