You might not see these fur-tive furry felines around your area, but Hamilton is home to 30,000 - 45,000 free-roaming, unowned “Community Cats”. These cats are free-roaming, outdoor cats with no verifiable signs of ownership. These cats are found all over the world. Community cats can be feral or friendly, young, or old. Here in the Hamilton and Burlington area, they live in our urban areas, rural farms, parks, backyards, forested and industrial areas.
The larger this population gets, the greater the risk of disease spread among the cats, as well as other unfortunate side effects such as greater pressure on the songbird populations. Operation CatSnip is working to keep this cat population healthy by educating the community on ways to help, stabilizing the population of community cats through spaying/neutering, and providing vaccinations to all cats before their return. Not only does this help the community cats, but it helps protect pet cats and their families by reducing disease spread within the community as a whole.
The HBSPCA runs the TNVR (Trap, Neuter/Spay, Vaccinate, Return) program to trap and treat community cats. These programs focus on targeted streets as focused efforts have a greater impact on controlling the population than a scattered approach would have.
On November 12th, 2024, Stephanie Muir, HBSPCA's Community Cat Manager, ran one of these mass trapping sessions with the help of the Community Cat Pawsibilities of Hamilton Rescue and a team of volunteers. The entire team went into the area and began by talking to the community.
The group went door-to-door to talk to the community, let them know when they'd be trapping and what the program was aiming to do, and importantly answer any questions and concerns they had. Lastly, the team got in touch with any colony caregivers in the area to get information on the colony. Next, it was time to begin the trapping.
The team loaded their van with cat food, humane traps, and other supplies and began setting up. Traps were set up on the properties of community members who gave permission. The team monitored the traps closely and as soon as a cat was trapped, the cat (still in the trap) was immediately moved away from other traps and into the CatSnip van. During this trapping session, the team caught 18 cats.
Once loaded, the CatSnip van transported the cats back to the SPCA where the cats were transferred to the recovery centre. Cats were given food and spent the night in the recovery centre before surgery.
On surgery day, all the cats that were captured were sedated and spayed or neutered, after which their recovery is monitored by staff as they come out of aesthesia. Once recovered, they are given more food and rest one more night in the recovery centre.
The next day is homecoming for these cats. The day starts with another feeding so all cats are returned with full stomachs. Then cats (who are now back in the traps for transport) are reloaded into the CatSnip van and driven back to be returned to the exact address where they were originally trapped.
After the cats are returned back to their home turf, the colony caregivers continue their important work; both by taking care of the cats, and by letting the TNVR team at the HBSPCA know if new cats show up. If this is the case, then additional trapping sessions will be arranged until all the cats in that area have been spayed/neutered and are up-to-date with their vaccinations.
After all the cats in a particular area have been trapped and neutered/spayed, trapping efforts will continue in neighbouring streets, radiating cat healthcare out from the first targeted area to ensure accurate and efficient coverage.
While 18 cats may seem like a drop in the ocean when there are between 30,000 and 45,000 community cats in Hamilton, when you consider that every unspayed/unneutered cat can exponentially contribute to the population numbers these numbers can have a significant impact on the growth of the community cat population.
In addition to the 18 cats caught and treated in this TNVR mass trapping, spaying the female cats could prevent more than 477 new unhoused kittens from joining the community cat population over the next 16 months and that's not taking into account the impact from the male cats caught!
Register as Colony Caregiver or an Assistant Feline Feeder:
https://www.hbspca.com/community-programs/operation-catsnip-tnvr/feeding-feral-cats
In order to provide care to these cat populations, the HBSPCA needs up-to-date information on how many cats there are and where they are living. Colony Caregivers and Assistant Feline Feeders are the organization's eyes on the ground, providing essential information that allows the HBSPCA to plan their capture programs efficiently and deliver needed care to more cats. Additionally, registration ensures compliance with municipal by-laws and will protect you from possible fines for unlawfully feeding feral cats.
To help keep this program running and to care for the cats brought in, you can get involved by donating directly to the TNVR program, or by making a general donation in which the funds would be directed to an area that would need it most.
If you would prefer to donate items that directly relate to the care of community cats, there is a constant need for small paper plates, and puppy pee pads in particular.
Make Your Donation: HERE
View Our Wishlist: HERE
By Heather MacGregor
