This is a great picture taken by Darren McDonald of TNR volunteer Christy Moschopedis. There’s a small gray tabby kitten in a trap. Christy looks at her with gentleness. Christy wears gloves to avoid being scratched or bitten, although the fiercest bite still hurts. Christy and her co-volunteer, Jill Robertson, have caught 59 cats from a feral cat colony in one cul-de-sac in Chilliwack, USA.

Christy the face of TNR. Photo: Darren McDonald. Source: Sooke News Mirror

The women are part of a volunteer group carrying out a successful TNR program. There are more feral cats to catch. They’ll be vaccinated, neutered and either adopted out or returned to where they came from.

In the summer Christy said that the feral cat population exploded. If the summers were particularly warm I wonder whether they contributed to the explosion in the feral cat population.

It seems that a number of rescue centers and organisations are involved in the adoption of the cats. Some of them awaiting adoption are at Heart and Soul Dog and Cat Rescue Society, Vancouver Orphaned Kitten Rescue Association, Therapy and Rescue Society and Chilliwack Animal Safe Haven.

I thought the photograph on this page was perhaps the best that I have seen of volunteers working in trap-neuter-release programs. Christy’s face looking up towards the kitten is one of kindness and gentleness. It’s a good, attractive and strong face which is why I think it could be the face of TNR in the USA.

I have no connection with her and I don’t know her but this is a really cool photo. It is kindness which underpins trap-neuter-release programs. It’s that innate kindness which is expressed in animal welfare through thousands of TNR programs in the US. The hunters project the opposite: aggression and hate.

I always advocate TNR over mass hunting of feral cats. The hunters think that TNR is a complete failure but they cannot suggest a viable alternative. Trying to hunt to extinction all the feral cats in America is completely impractical, politically unacceptable and doomed to failure There would be total uproar among the millions of animal advocates in the country. This is the alternative put forward by the feral cat hunters. And if TNR was funded by the taxpayer it would be more widespread and effective. If TNR is not as effective as it might be it is because it is run by volunteers using their own money.

Feral cat hunters might argue that mass extinctions through hunting work sometimes but they are referring to smallish, confined areas such islands. When you discuss extermination of all feral cats in a country the size of America the concept becomes laughable. Plus, as I always say, shooting feral cats is inherently immoral.