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How one Metro Detroit city is using feral cats to keep rats away

TNR program is humane way to reduce outdoor cat populations

A Metro Detroit city is tackling two problems at once with a program aimed at helping reduce the feral cat population and keep rats away.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud said the city is working with the Friends of Animals of Metro Detroit and using a “multifaceted approach” to reduce the rat and feral cat populations.

The city is using a trap-neuter-return program to reduce the number of feral cats in the city in the long run, and then returning the sterilized cats to the city to help tackle the rodent and rat population.

A trap-neuter-return program is a method of reducing the feral cat population. In the program, feral outdoor cats are trapped, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, ear-tipped, and returned to the location where they were found.

“TNR is the most humane and effective method for stabilizing and eventually reducing outdoor cat populations. Left unsterilized, the feral cats and their offspring would continue to reproduce, potentially introducing thousands of unwanted cats into the community,” according to Michigan Humane.

Michigan Humane said that these programs stabilize feral cat colonies, and eliminate or minimize roaming, spraying/marking by males, fighting, and mating encounters.

Hammoud said the program has returned 115 cats to the neighborhood after they’ve been spayed and neutered. He said the city has seen a 15% reduction in the number of rat complaints year over year.

Alley Cat Allies has tips on how to care for feral cats during the colder months.


About the Author
Kayla Clarke headshot

Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer.

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