Feral Cats and our Trap Neuter Return Programme
Related Pages: Stray Cats, Animal Hoarding
Our Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) programme was launched in September 2015, over the years we've helped over 1950 cats and have brought hundreds of young feral kittens into our care for socialising and rehoming. During 2024 our Community Team successfully Trapped, Neutered and Returned 261 cats!
Our team will often be working throughout the night in order to carry out the trapping of feral cats in and around Cumbria. Traps are monitored every 2-3 hours during the day and every 6 hours at night. Our team works closely with feral cat carers to ensure the welfare of the cats is never compromised.
We “ear tip” all cats we trap and neuter. This shows the cat has already been neutered and avoids any unnecessary trapping in the future. Cats are also vaccinated and flea and worm treatment is given where necessary. Feral cats are not required to be microchipped as they are considered to be 'unowned'.
Whilst we do not charge a set fee for our Trap, Neuter, Return service, each cat we help costs our charity around £90 so we do ask for donations where possible.
Do the math
If we Trap, Neuter and Return 40 cats, that is a minimum cost of £3,600 to Oak Tree Animals’ Charity!
Did you know, many feral cat colonies we help are in double digits? Recently, we have supported many 40+ feral cat colonies.
Why do we neuter feral cats?
Neutering stalls the population growth, helps it to reduce and reduces the spread of diseases in not only feral but domestic cats too.
Did you know an un-neutered female cat can become pregnant as young as 4 months old? One female cat can be responsible up to 20,000 offspring in just 5 years!
We do not take in feral cats or feral kittens older than 9 weeks of age into our charity for rehoming. This is because future behaviours are formed between 6-9 weeks of age. Once 9 weeks has passed, a feral cat’s welfare will be compromised if placed in an enclosed setting with forced human contact. Oak Tree works in line with modern methods and the Code of Practice of the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (with which we hold full membership).
Welfare of Feral Cats
Oak Tree believes that the best place for a feral and semi-feral cats is outdoors in an environment they are acclimatised to. This way, they can regulate their own daily routines and are able to avoid confinement and involuntary close contact with humans.
To reduce stress as much as possible during the TNR process the feral cats are never manually handled whilst awake, and carriers/traps holding cats are covered with a towel to reduce the impact of the surrounding environments.
Feral cats are released back at the trapping sites within 48 hours or trapping.
For the welfare of both cat and human, please do not trap a feral cat yourself, always contact Oaktree Community Team for help.
If you are in need of assistance with the neutering of a feral cat colony, please complete the form below. For further information, you can contact our team at community@oaktreeanimals.org.uk