Managing Feral Populations

Fix those Feral Felines!

To request a T-N-R appointment please fill out this Google Form.

If you need humane traps or need help trapping, traps can be rented from us for a $50 deposit fee.

FREE Feral Cat Spay & Neuters for Madison and Oglethorpe County Residents!

Every year the Madison-Oglethorpe Animal Shelter (MOAS) takes in almost 3,000 animals with the vast majority of these intakes being cats and kittens. A person would not think that the shelter’s work is seasonal but, historically, the summer months have proven to be brutal with hundreds of animals entering the shelter system daily. Many well-intended residents begin feeding feral/wild cats that wonder on their property, but quickly find themselves being overwhelmed with the number of cats once they begin reproducing. Many cats and kittens eventually find themselves being surrendered to the local animal shelters. To assist our county residents from finding themselves in situations described above, the Madison county board of commissioners has teamed up with the Madison-Oglethorpe Animal Shelter to have these animals spayed and neutered before overwhelming the residents.

Just register using the Google Form link above. Be sure to humanely trap the animal in a feral cat trap, bring the animal to the shelter between 8:30am -9:00am the day of your appointment, and pick up later that day to return the cat to its home. This service is only available for feral, unowned cats within the community. All animals not in a trap will be charged the usual spay/neuter service charge.

In addition to receiving surgery, each cat will receive a rabies vaccine and an ear tip to indicate that the cat has been altered.

Additionally, there is another alternative to trap rentals. Campus Cats is a program located in Clarke county who loans out traps free of charge.

If you have any questions, please contact the shelter at 706-795-2868. This new initiative is to help reduce the number of cats and kittens surrendered to the animal shelter on an annual basis. This opportunity is only for TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) services and not for the surrendering of these animals.

Trap Rentals

We provide trap rentals at a minimal cost to assist in trapping feral cats with your rental fee being reimbursed to you upon return of the trap. We have a number of cat traps available for your needs. It is often best to set out multiple traps at once, especially if you expect that you'll need to trap a large number of animals. 

Our shelter staff will be happy to discuss tips on how to successfully trap animals using a humane trap. Best of all, these traps allow our veterinary staff to sedate the animal in preparation for spay/neuter surgery with low risk of harm to the animals or our staff.  

Spay/Neuter at our Low-Cost Clinic

We will spay/neuter feral cats at our low-cost clinic for only $70 for females and $50 for males. This is also a good opportunity to have them vaccinated for rabies. Our feral cat package also includes a mandatory ear tip (discussed next). While some trapped animals (like the one pictured above) will be friendly enough to be handled and can potentially be put up for adoption if they are unwanted, others will be truly feral and would not do well in a typical adoptive home. 

However, once they are spayed and neutered, they are ideal candidates to be returned to your property. Animals that have been altered show less problem behaviors (fighting, roaming, caterwauling, etc.) and are less likely to have health issues. But most importantly, research shows that TNR is the best way to reduce the feral population in your area. Your newly altered cat(s) will maintain their own territory on your property and will discourage other feral cats from moving in.

If you just remove the feral cats and euthanize them, research has shown that they will simply be replaced by new feral cats who are attracted to the same conditions that brought the original ferals to your area in the first place. These new ferals will breed and produce new ferals (oftentimes with two litters per female cat per year!) leading to a much large problem than you may have had originally. 

Finally, if you are interested in altering a large colony of stray/feral cats, please contact our shelter to inquire about financial assistance. We currently have funds to assist with Oglethorpe County residents due to the fundraising efforts of a local advocacy group, and we are actively applying for grants to assist with Madison County residents. 

Ear Tipping

We require ear tipping on all of our feral cat surgeries. Ear tipping involves (you guessed it!) removing the tip off of one of a cat's ears, usually their left as shown above, but not always. This cosmetic change does impair the animal in any way (in fact many feral cats already have damaged ears from fighting), but it is a sure sign that the cat is already spayed or neutered and is likely part of a managed colony. There's also a good chance that the cat has already been vaccinated for rabies. 

Ear tipped cats should be left where you find them whenever possible, but of course, if the animals is sick, injured, or otherwise a nuisance, it may not be possible to do that. If you have questions or concerns about an ear tipped animal, feel free to contact our staff for advice on how to proceed.