News
TNR: The New Revolution
July 23, 2008, 2:50 MT
By michael rinker
Small-town officials and residents in Iowa, like the Capps family (pictured), eagerly joined Best Friends on the TNR bandwagon.
Small-town officials and residents in Iowa, like the Capps family (pictured), eagerly joined Best Friends on the TNR bandwagon.
Written by Michael Rinker, Best Friends staff
When the infamous, if short-lived, $5 bounty on free-roaming cats was instituted in the tiny town of Randolph a few months ago, Best Friends quickly dispatched a team to Iowa to help douse the flames of indignation and anger that had begun to rage across the country and the world.
Mayor Vance Trively still has a stack of several hundred letters – which were in addition to dozens of negative, and often cruel, messages on the Randolph community website – attacking the bounty, the mayor and even the town’s residents.
The first introductory meetings calmed the waters and got everyone in the same room and talking. The bounty was removed and discussions centered on instituting a trap-neuter-return to deal with Randolph’s immediate cat problem.
Rescue groups laid out the details for town officials, who liked what they heard and eventually bought in. After the success of the first phase of TNR, Mayor Trively became a solid supporter of the program. (“TNR” also stands for Trively’s Now Relaxed.)
After a couple of rescue groups bowed out, Best Friends continued to work with the people of Randolph. Then a neighboring town heard about the success and started asking about the program. Then another town expressed interest, and another and another. At a July 14 workshop led by Shelly Kotter, manager of Best Friends’ feral cat program, several towns sent representatives, including one who drove hour hours to attend.
And there you have it: Viral TNR.
One of the towns was Red Oak, whose procedure for feral cats is to hold them for several days then euthanize them.
Christine Morrison, the town’s animal control officer, responds to complaints about aggressive or destructive cats, but says that residents don’t report feral colonies because they don’t want to see the cats killed.
“People are not willing to come forward and say, ‘Look, I have 27 cats living in my backyard, can you help me with this problem?’ They just continue to feed them to the best of their ability,” she told the Omaha World-Herald for a story about the feral cat problem in small towns across the midlands.
‘Exciting news’
Faced with the near hopeless task of controlling the proliferation of cats through eradication, Red Oak’s mayor spoke on a radio talk show about the success of TNR in Randolph.
Best Friends team members reached out to the town. Christine attended the workshop and Shelly visited the mayor to promote the program. In addition, Mayor Trively called his counterpart to attest to the effectiveness of TNR.
When Shelly returned to Best Friends last weekend from her latest trip to Iowa, she got word of “exciting news” in an e-mail from Christine that was forwarded to Anna Gonce, associate director of Best Friends community programs and services.
“I spoke to the city council of Red Oak last night to present my case on a TNR program for the city,” Christine wrote. “They have finally given approval for me to go ahead and try to secure funding for the program. HOORAH!!!!!!
“This is a huge success.... I have to give the majority of the credit to Shelly though. Without her support and her conversation with our mayor I think my task would have continued to be a difficult one. Will keep you all informed as we go forward.”
Shelly said Christine’s experience “epitomizes what we were doing there.”
“She was so nervous to go to the city council. We gave her some advice, like don’t tell them fuzzy stories, just give them the facts and what the bottom line will be.”
Also during her latest trip to Iowa, Shelly met with concerned residents of Shenandoah, who invited her back to help make a presentation to the city council.
“There are pockets in Shenandoah that are very bad,” she said. “People know if they [report the cats], the alternative is euthanasia. When we were there, they were coming out of their houses to talk to us, wanting to know what they could do
Hats off to Capps
Among those were Jeff Capps and his two sons Morgan and Malakai. They showed the Best Friends team around the area, helped them scout locations for ferals and trap the cats.
Shelly said Jeff will be one of a regional group working together to continue to trap and transport ferals to Hearts United for Animals, which has been doing the spay/neuter surgeries.
Best Friends will give the group a $1,000 grant to continue the TNR program in the Randolph/Shenandoah area and expand to neighboring towns. The grant will be combined with about $300 in unsolicited donations to Randolph. (A far cry from the unsolicited denunciations of Randolph.)
Since the Best Friends team began its work, 101 cats have been through the program. The most recent trip got 19 kittens who had been too young for surgery during prior trips, and three adults in Randolph. Nine others were picked up in Shenandoah.
Anna said that looking back at the project and how it started with a small town of 200 people placing a bounty on unwanted cats, and what it has grown into, makes her proud to be part of Best Friends.
“Best Friends stuck with this town and area, believing in their spirit and compassion, even after the national media, our national partners [and others] had labeled the entire state a bunch of ‘cat killers,” she wrote in an internal e-mail to Best Friends staff.
“Shelly saw the good potential here and became a strong advocate for this project and swept all of us away with her, and am I ever glad that she did. What we discovered, by listening and removing our agenda out of the discussion, was a state full of caring people who just needed to be shown a better way. And now just look at the outcome!”
Photo of Jeff, Malakai and Morgan Capps by Shannon Riddle, Best Friends staff
How to Help from Your Home
Please support the Best Friends Network Rescue Fund by selecting “Iowa Homeless Cats” in the drop-down menu.
Join the Feral Cat Campaign on the Best Friends Network. Get breaking news and find out ways you can get involved.
For more information on how you can get involved in TNR check out the Feral Cat Resources.