Have you ever been walking along a road and seen a cat run in front of your path? Chances are that this cat is a stray.
What is a stray cat?
If you don’t know, a stray animal (a cat in this case) is an animal who has lost their home from either losing their way home or being abandoned. Typically, stray cats live outdoors and avoid human contact.
Introducing the problem
Shockingly, there are many strays across the world. But according to Catster, recent statistics show that there are around sixty to one-hundred million stray cats living within the United States alone.
But what happens when there are too many strays and “feral” cats that are not being fed and loved within homes? Unfortunately, the answer is simple: they die.
On average, stray cats live from approximately two to three years due to them having to fend for themselves on scraps and overall live on the bare minimum of life’s essentials.
The other issue with stray cats is that the amount of them is causing overpopulation and more and more are passing away in larger numbers every single year.
A possible solution
Did you know that cats can get pregnant as early as four months old?
This is a problem for stray cats especially. According to USA Today, cats tend to get pregnant with litter on average around three times per year, and multiplying that by the sixty to one-hundred million stray cats roaming the streets, there are too many to count!
A possible solution to this problem is something called ‘TNR’ which stands for Trap, Neuter and Return or Release.
TNR is described as the only “humane way” of having stray cats in our communities. The
procedure may sound intense and like it may cause harm towards the cats, but it is quite
the opposite. The program is performed most commonly by veterinary clinics, shelters,
and sometimes even specific organizations.
The point of TNR is to lower the overpopulation among stray, feral, or community cats
while ultimately lowering death rates within the stray population.
What the community has to say
Many people share different views among whether it is humane or inhumane to be
capturing cats, performing surgery on them, and then releasing them back into the wild.
Tenth grader, Adam Yasin at Coral Springs High says that he does not believe that the
Trap Neuter Release program is beneficial towards the problem of overpopulation in cats “because the ways that it’s done would betray any trust the animal has on a human being.”
This statement does raise a valid point. Has no one considered the possible trauma that neutering a cat may put them through?
Ash Plofkin, another Tenth grade student who has encountered stray cats on campus says that he has not heard much about the Trap Neuter Release program but from what he has heard, he “believes that they can be very beneficial if they are [performed] by a proper company and know what they are doing. As long as the cats are safe, I don’t have an issue.”
It is important to recognize that the goal of the Trap Neuter Release program is not to harm the cats but to assist them in a better life, as well as prevent more stray cats from becoming a stray litter.
The direct connection with our community
At Coral Springs High School, students have reported seeing several stray cats roaming around campus during class changes or during lunches.
From what I have seen around the school, there are four strays; one appears to be a kitten (presumably a few months to a year old) with beige fur and dark stripes. The second appears all gray and tends to avoid human contact. The third appears to have less stripes than the beige kitten and appears bigger, he is darker as well. The fourth cat has been seen on the baseball field, this one is gray with stripes.
As good Samaritans do, it has been noticed that around campus there are students and staff who have been feeding the cats. Furthermore, as humans it is in our nature to care for and give love to others (even if they are animals) because everyone deserves love.
Conclusion
As for the issue with the cats on campus, it is up to the administration of the school whether they want to involve a TNR Organization.
Although it may seem tempting to say no to the trap-neuter-release programs you must think of the benefits that it will provide to the cats.
