Finding felines: Beatrice program has neutered thousands of stray cats

BEATRICE, Neb. (KLKN) — Beatrice has thousands of stray cats, but a targeted effort is trying to stop them from adding to the population problem.

The Beatrice Humane Society has a program called TNR: trap, neuter and release.

Staff and volunteers use what looks like a simple trap, but for the team, it’s a tool for transformation.

“It provides an answer to a question we had for hundreds of years: ‘What do we do with all these cats?'” said Carlee Fiddes, executive director of the humane society.

Fiddes said this is a population plan with compassion at its core and it’s good for both the cats and the community.

Each feral cat is humanely captured, spayed or neutered and returned to the exact area where they were found.

Neighbors said they simply do not want stray cats around because they cause a lot of noise.

Fiddes said a lot of that noise goes away once they’re fixed.

“Whether or not that’s the fighting or the mating and the yowling and the howling and the fighting with the raccoons or the spraying or the marking or having babies in the garage, all the problems are very real,” she said. “And so many of those are related to those mating, so getting them spayed or neutered takes care of almost all of those problems.”

In the two years since the program began, over 4,000 cats have been caught.

And the humane society is hoping to ramp that up.

“If you’re the person that cannot let a starving cat wander past your patio without setting out some food, me too,” she said. “But also, do the next thing and figure out how to get them spayed and neutered and be able to help them along their journey. Because everyone can do this and it’s going to take the entire community to solve this problem.”

And if you’d like to volunteer or report a stray cat colony, you can contact your local humane society.