Surely you have seen cats roaming your neighborhood at night, searching and scrounging for food.
When you try to approach them, they dart away. Chances are that if they do run away, they are feral.
Feral cats are wild animals. They have no desire to be a pet. Never try to house these animals or pick them up with your bare hands.
But there is a way you can lower the feral cat population: Trap, neuter, release.
Valley Humane Society strongly believes in what we call TNR. Our Tri-Valley headquarters is near a feral cat colony, so we keep an eye on who is out there and when we see a new face, we trap it to check for an ear notch.
The notch indicates that the cat has been spayed or neutered. If there is no ear notch, we send it off to the East Bay SPCA to be altered.
Our veterinary technician, Pam, pays for this service out of her own pocket, as VHS is not a feral rescue organization. Traps also can be rented from the East Bay SPCA. After we trap and neuter, the feral is released back into our colony.
The concept of TNR is very simple. If you would like to feed a colony, that is great. The cats can always use help finding food. Just make sure to leave it in a quiet place so that the general public cannot get to it. Always have the feral colony spayed or neutered.
About the Valley Humane Society
Valley Humane Society is a no-kill, nonprofit animal shelter in Pleasanton. We have more than 200 volunteers and six staff members. We pride ourselves in being a resource center for the community, providing knowledge of responsible pet ownership and humane education.
Adopting and owning a pet is a lifetime commitment. Here at Valley Humane Society, we assure that before we adopt out animals, they are vaccinated, micro chipped, spayed or neutered, and tested for a feline AIDS, feline leukemia and heartworm.
All of our adoptable animals can be found on the Valley Humane Society website at www.valleyhumane.org, or you can come meet them at 3670 Nevada St., in Pleasanton. Our phone number is 925-426-8656.
