Feral Cats Released Too Soon after Spaying Operation under TNR Program Causing Death

The Humane Society Of Tampa Bay are releasing neutered and spayed feral cats the next day under TNR programs. I am told that the usual period for female spayed cats is 7 to 10 days in a cone to prevent them from getting at their incision (I have since learnt that this is unnecessarily long). The male neutering operation is obviously much less invasive with a much faster recovery.

TNR program Austin Texas
PHOTO BY SANDY CARSON. TNR program Texas. Note that this is for illustrative purposes only.
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Having been kept in overnight they are then released back to where they came from. It looks as though people didn’t know what then happened to spayed cats but then somebody decided to find out and the result is disturbing. I’m not going to show the photographs but if you want to see them you can click on the link at the base of the page. Please read this page first! They are graphic apparently.

Sometimes the wound opens and the cat bleeds to death. Sometimes the wound becomes infected and infested with maggots. There is no follow-up care, no pain meds, nothing.

They admit that what they’re doing is not perfect and the reason why they are released back to where they came so soon is because they don’t have the space to care for the feral cats to keep them in for the required 7 to 10 days after the operation. It would appear that they accept the risk that comes with early release. It is a compromise due to financial constraints. Is this is a good idea?

This information – and it is the first time I have heard about this sort of information – is, I think, important to the thousands of trap-neuter-release programmes across the United States of America.


Please Note (update): I am an enormous fan of TNR. It is an important part of feral cat management. I don’t want to see it undermined. It is said that this story has been contrived or exaggerated by people including veterinarians who are against TNR. I am told that the Hillsborough County Veterinary Medical Society has joined a witch-hunt against TNR and this story is part of their agenda.


PETA, we know, criticise TNR programs because they say it is better that the feral cats are euthanised rather than sending them back to the urban jungle to live miserable lives and die early. Well, this information, at least in part, supports that assessment and it has come as a great shock to me.

Naïvely, I had believed that TNR programs were carried out by the book. How else should they be carried out? If the programs put feral cats under an additional risk of dying then it surely fundamentally undermines TNR programs in the first place?

I would have thought, and it is easy to say this but much harder to do it, that if people operate TNR programs then they must be operated by the book and to a high standard otherwise there is a question mark as to whether they should be carried out.

Don Thompson, the executive director of the Hillsborough Animal Health Foundation said:

“For me personally, I would rather lie in a bed and have somebody provide something that would let me go to sleep peacefully then I would to say, that you’re going to cut my guts out, drop me out onto the street, and let me bleed out.”

That is the sort of thing that PETA states. Perhaps the Hillsborough County Veterinary Medical Society are PETA sympathisers in respect of their TNR policy and have an agenda to denigrate TNR.

Sadly, and very reluctantly, I would have to agree that if a feral cat dies because of complications arising out of an operation under TNR program, then the program has clearly failed and that feral cat would have been better off being left alone.

That said, we can’t say that all TNR programs are failures. It may just be that this particular program operated by the Humane Society of Tampa Bay is unusual in not allowing the spayed cats sufficient time to recover from the operation. If, however, it is not unusual then this news is shocking in my view. I have a feeling that is it not that unusual and those involved in TNR accept a percentage of failures but….here is another update: judging by the comments the risk to health from spaying appears to be extremely low. Great.

I would have thought that research is required in tracking what happens to feral cats after spaying operations and I wonder if anybody has further information about that. I have never researched this point. It needs to be researched. It is critical to support TNR programs and I would hope that further studies would come to the conclusion that a very high percentage of cats recover well from spaying operations to which they have been subjected within TNR programs.

Source and photos

Note: in light of one or two comments the article was updated on 28th June at 07:30 GMT and again at 09:58 and again at 19:32 on 29th June and at 07:29 on 30th.




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88 thoughts on “Feral Cats Released Too Soon after Spaying Operation under TNR Program Causing Death”

  1. quit telling all the lies that t n r works please. you know it does not do a thing except let some people hoard cats on other peoples property. and allows them to dump more unwanted cats in other peoples neighborhoods. if they want to hoard the unwanted cats let them do it in their own yards and keep them there as well. no problem with that. so quit being irresponsible pet owners and take responsibility of them or humanely put them down. pretty simple really, just enact a few simple laws. license, vaccination proof, leash laws and not allowed to free roam. my family has no problem with these laws and we are responsible cat owners.

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  2. I was going to pass on the link to Vox Felina’s blog post on the “Investigative Report,” but see it has been shared. I hope there is further investigation into what was reported in the article.

    The TNVR organization I am with has treated (parasites), vaccinated (against common feline illnesses and also rabies), spayed or neutered thousands of cats over several years. The caretakers receive pre- and post- surgery information for their cats. After surgery and recovery, the cats are returned to their caretakers. The cats are to remain in their carriers or traps and monitored. If any complications develop, the cats would receive follow-up care. The cats are usually (depending on weather and other factors) released 24-48 hours following surgery and continue to be monitored and cared for by their caretakers. The cats are not held for 7-10 days as it would considered very stressful for feral cats. It is also not necessary to keep them caged that long.

    Two veterinarians were on our organization’s board in the early years and formulated the organization’s policy on the pre- and post- surgical care of the cats. We work closely with numerous veterinarians.

    Sampling of links in regard to hold times post-surgery:

    http://www.operationpets.org/feral_cats.php3

    https://www.animalsheltering.org/magazine/articles/returning-healthy-feral-cats

    https://www.aspca.org/sites/default/files/upload/images/feral_cat_sterilization_protocol_0.pdf

    Reply
    • Many thanks for your excellent comment. There is now excellent and comprehensive information in the comments on this page on spaying within TNR.

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  3. I have been working with the local TRN program here in PA for 16 months, last year we did over 600 cats, this year so far close to 300… we release them the next day, we are also very close to our caregivers and have not heard of one cat that had an issue. Our caregivers sign contracts to continue to care for the cats, and ALL love their colonies, and I can assure you if there was a problem we would know about it. We had one younger cat not come out of anastasia after surgery and we have had issues with a colony with kittens with upper respiratory infection, but no issues releasing cats the next day.

    I will not comment on PETA’s position on TNR, other than to say that is just another reason I would NEVER send them money!

    Reply
    • Mike do you have a no-fail food for TNR? I’ve been trying to trap a mama cat for 2 years and no luck. Now I’m trying to catch one of her kittens. I trapped one last week and she’s going to rescue in a few weeks. I still haven’t caught her sister and have tried salmon, tuna, mackerel, KFC chicken. No luck at all with the remaining kittens. Mama won’t go within 20 feet of any kind of trap.

      Reply

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