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Rochester Animal Services: Outdoor cats and kittens

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What to do if you find stray kittens

We frequently receive calls from citizens who have found unattended kittens and do not know what to do. 

Many deliver boxes of such kittens to the Animal Services Center without knowing if the kittens were actually orphaned or not. Our colleagues at the San Diego Humane Society have shared this flow chart to help citizens recognize which kittens need help and what to do based on the age of the kittens and other circumstances. For more information, review Don't Cat-Nap The Kittens!  

If the kittens are truly in need of care, and you are willing to take that responsibility, check out the resources and information available at Kitten Lady's website including a free webinar series.

The ASPCA has an online tool in English and Spanish to help guide finders with identifying the best option for found kittens.

 what-to-do-if-you-find-kitt

How to help outdoor cats in the winter

We used to think the best thing we could do for a healthy stray cat was to take him to the shelter. However, we have come to realize that the best thing is to keep him in his neighborhood. If he is lost, he is more likely to get back home with a little help from the community; and if he calls the outdoors home, he will do better if a neighbor provides him with good food, clean water, and a snug winter shelter, than stressed out in a cage at our facility. Rochester Animal Services is here to help you with that cat. And we are always available to lend a paw to sick or injured cats. Give us a call at 428-7274. Together we can provide the right resources for any cat in need. 

 Learn more at our Found A Pet and Community Cats pages or visit the Million Cat Challenge - The Cat Superhighway webinar and pathway planning.


  

Additional resources on how to help outdoor cats in the winter: 

Community Cats

What are Community Cats, and how are they managed?

Community cats refers to all un-owned or loosely owned, free-roaming, and abandoned cats and feral cats.

Feral cats are un-owned, non-socialized, free-roaming cats. 

Trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) is the most humane and effective method known for managing community cats. The cats are trapped, spayed and neutered, vaccinated, ear-tipped, and then returned to their outdoor homes. Caretakers provide food and shelter and monitor the cats. When possible, young kittens are removed for adoption. 

The latest recommendation is that healthy, friendly adults also be returned to the neighborhood.  Doing so returns cats to their "homes" where they were thriving and had access to shelter and resources, often including multiple people who feed and care for them. Additionally, such returns reduce the likelihood that new cats will move into the area vacated by the removal. When new cats move into an area, there is often increased reproduction, which means more kittens and population growth.

Why TNVR works

  • Cats are vaccinated against rabies
  • Immediate reductions are realized when young kittens are re-homed
  • Leads to long-term management, reduction, and eventual elimination of roaming cat populations
  • More cost-effective for municipalities compared to trapping, sheltering, and euthanasia
  • Reduces inundation of kittens at shelters every spring
  • Keeps cats out of shelters, which are inherently stressful and bad for medical and behavioral wellness 
  • Decreases nuisance complaints by reducing cat fighting, mating, and spraying
  • Engages citizens in helping as volunteer trappers and caretakers
  • Appeals to external funding source's interest in paying for spay/neuter surgeries and care
  • Supports mediation of conflicts by nonprofit organizations between volunteers and residents
  • Maintains the health of the colony cats and allows caretakers to trap new cats that may join the colony

Why removal does not work

Except for a few successful projects on isolated oceanic islands, removal efforts have not proven successful. A significant majority of the cats need to be removed from the population to reduce their reproductive capacity. Doing so is labor and cost-intensive particularly as new cats move into the vacated area to take advantage of the available resources. 

Generally, what happens is that the individual cats change without any significant reduction in the population numbers. Additionally, removal typically means that cats are turned over to shelters. They are held for mandatory holding periods that are designed to allow owners time to locate missing pets. Given that community cats are by definition not owned, the holding period is an unnecessary and inefficient use of limited shelter resources. After the holding period, some friendly cats that may have been socialized with people are made available for adoption. 

Such cats that are placed in homes are thereby competing for those adoptions that might otherwise be available to truly at-risk companion cats (e.g., indoor cats associated with deceased owners, abandonment, animal cruelty). However, many community cats are ferals that have not been socialized with people. 

Their options are limited when taken into shelter systems and most do not result in live releases unless they can be returned to their original colonies. Some people may advocate for extermination, however, the number of cats that need to be put to death to achieve marked reductions in populations of free-roaming cats is unacceptably high and morally reprehensible for most communities. 

Source: The Humane Society of the United States.  2014.  Managing Community Cats: A Guide for Municipal Leaders.

At Rochester Animal Services, we work with local organizations and community members engaged in TNVR to support their efforts, including collaborations on grant-funded projects, surgical sterilizations in our own clinic, pet food for community cat caretakers, and contributing to funding surgeries provided by other clinics through our Pets for Life Program and participation with the Greater Rochester Animal Coalition. 

We also have a Barn and Working Cat program that helps place a small percentage of un-socialized cats into barns or other non-traditional homes. 

For more information on community cats, visit the following resources: 

Community Cat position statements & letters of support

Barn and Working Cat Program

Rochester Animal Services sometimes has cats that may not be suitable for adoption as house pets. Cats in the Barn and Working Cat Program come in as strays and fall into three categories: 

  1.  Cats with litter box habits that make them unsuitable as house pets;
  2. Cats that have not adjusted well to the shelter environment and whose behaviors are more acceptable in a barn or other non-traditional home;
  3. Cats that are fearful of people and prefer the company of other cats or other animals.

We do not release cats as barn cats if they are suitable as house pets, only cats without other options. This is the last chance for these cats; they have nowhere else to go - and for some, time is limited.

The barn and working cat program reaches out to those with an active barn, horse stable, warehouse, plant nursery, or other suitable location with safe outbuildings. Having a barn cat or working cats will help control the rodent population. The cats will help the property owner while the property owner provides the cats with a safe place to live. There is no risk of unwanted litters because these cats are already spayed or neutered.

What Animal Services provides

All cats available for adoption to barns or other non-traditional facilities are spayed or neutered and vaccinated prior to leaving the shelter. When a barn cat(s) is adopted, Animal Services staff will share information with you on how to acclimate the cat(s) to the new environment and make them feel at home.

There is no adoption fee, but donations are welcome to help Animal Services cover some of their medical costs. Since many of these cats thrive in the company of other cats, Animal Services encourages clients to adopt more than one cat at one time.

What you'll need

Those who adopt the barn cats agree to give them:

  • Shelter in barns, stables, or other buildings
  • Daily food and water - cats cannot live on mousing alone
  • Long-term veterinary care, as needed (they're neutered and vaccinated at adoption)
  • A secure place to keep them for the first 2–3 weeks while they acclimate to the new environment. This can be a tack room or any secure indoor enclosure from which the cats cannot escape 
  •  The shelter may lend you an introduction cage if no secure area is available

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