Community Cats Program

Home / Community Cats Program

Proven to be one of the only ways to help reduce and keep the community cat population healthy, SNVR (Shelter Neuter Vaccinate and Return) and TNVR (Trap Neuter Vaccinate and Return) are fully supported by the Animal Rescue League of Berks County. All cats that go through this program are spayed/neutered, left ear tipped, and vaccinated for rabies. While the general assumption is that all outdoor cats are feral, this is not the case, and many of these cats, regardless of behavior, call the outdoors home.

Get an appointment

TNR surgery at the ARL costs $50* for male and female cats. Appointments are limited at the moment, and only five spaces will be scheduled per person per day. To schedule, call our Surgery Center at 610-373-8830 ext. 640.

Required: All cats must arrive in a trap. If a cat arrives in any other form of containment, such as a carrier or dog crate, our staff will refuse service. No transfer to traps will be available. Traps are available for rent through our Adoptions Department.

All cats will receive the following services at the time of surgery with no exceptions:

Spay/Neuter Surgery
Rabies Vaccination
FVRCP (Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus, Panleukopenia Vaccine)
Pain injection
Ear tip (corner of the left ear will be cut as a TNR identification mark)
Microchip with the address where they were trapped.

What is a community cat?

Community cat populations typically consist of a mixture of feral, semi-socialized, and lost or abandoned cats. The traditional idea of community cats was that they were feral and had little to no human interaction, with little chance of being socialized enough to live indoors as a domestic pet. As more research has been done in recent years, we have discovered that this is simply not the case. A community cat can be someone’s lost cat that has joined a nearby colony, someone’s indoor/outdoor cat that frequents the area, kittens raised by colony caretakers who have grown into friendly outdoor cats, and true feral cats. All these cats call the outdoors home and have different backgrounds compared to a traditional true feral cat.

Why TNR?

TNR is the only effective method to decrease the number of cats humanely and dramatically. Trapping and removing the cats doesn’t work because cats in nearby territories will move into the area and breed up to capacity. This is well-documented over decades of studies and is called the “vacuum effect.”

Despite how hard local animal welfare organizations have collectively tried in the past, old methods simply have not worked, as evidenced by the number of cats we see today in our county. We cannot euthanize or adopt our way out of the current cat crisis in Berks County and must collectively turn to methods proven to work for long-term solutions to get to a more manageable population.

*See the Research & Resources section.

*TNR Subsidy

ARL is a participant in the SpayUSA program. Spay USA offers subsidy funding for stray and feral cat caretakers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The application is open to individuals only; this is not a grant for animal shelters or other rescue organizations. Select the ARL when applying if you plan to use our clinic. Find more information about this subsidy and apply here.