Harris Township partners with local nonprofit to control stray cat population
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Harris Township partnered with Hope’s Dream Rescue for TNR services.
- Volunteers trap, hold and transport cats to clinics for spay, neuter and vaccine services.
- Most cats are released after recovery with ear-tips and microchips.
Months after hearing from several residents about a growing colony of stray cats near Country Place Park, Harris Township has partnered with a local nonprofit for ethical population control.
Howard-based Hope’s Dream Rescue & Sanctuary has been facilitating trap-neuter/spay-release (TNR) services for the cats they trap in the park ever since the township first approached them in August. No cats have been euthanized.
According to the nonprofit’s founder, Lesa King, the TNR services she’s providing not only keep the population of the cats low, but they also keep them healthy and unharmed.
“People always come and ask us to take their cats away, but the reality of it is that there isn’t really a place to take them to — it’s not like we can just magically whisk them away to some other dimension,” King told the CDT Tuesday night. “Shelters get full, and we can’t house them all, so TNR makes the most sense.”
She wished more municipalities would reach out to her with these type of requests.
“I’m glad [the township] came to us,” King added. “They’re only the second local government we’ve worked with outside of Lock Haven City. It was really refreshing to hear that they wanted to use TNR, and that they actually understood what TNR was.”
According to township manager Mark Boeckel, the township is not spending money on hiring King or her nonprofit. King volunteered her services and is content with the exposure the nonprofit gains from the service. Boeckel said that township officials are grateful.
At Tuesday night’s trapping session, King estimated that there were around 30-40 stray cats living in the woods, although she only had room to take 12 of them for TNR sessions that day.
Once the cats are trapped in a non-harming spring trap, a cover is placed over it to calm the cat’s nerves. They’re then held overnight and fed, to be transported to either the Allegheny Spay and Neuter Clinic in Woodland, or to the RoseBird Veterinary Clinic in Jersey Shore, where the TNR processes are carried out.
After the cats are sterilized, or “fixed,” the cats are released back to where they were trapped. Because the procedure to neuter a cat is less invasive than spaying, male cats are typically released the same day, with females being held for a bit longer before release.
If a kitten is caught that is young enough to be domesticated, it will also be fixed and vaccinated, but will be sent to a shelter like Centre County PAWS for adoption.
Additionally, each captured cat gets its ear clipped so that they can be easily identified as a TNR’d cat, and microchipped, so that its area of origin can be identified if it gets picked up in the future.
It’s not just King that’s doing the trapping, though. Many residents living in the neighborhoods around the park have reached out to her to ask if they can trap cats on their properties too, which is always met with a resounding yes.
“I’ve got maybe three, four, five people here trapping cats with us, using traps that we lent them,” King said. “It’s turned into a bit of a community affair, which is all right because we can always use more help.”
Moving forward, King is planning on returning this month to Country Place Park, where she’ll be looking to get another 12 cats TNR’d. She’s planning on continuing to return until most of the cats are serviced.
If anyone in or around the Centre County area is experiencing a stray cat problem, King recommends reaching out to her by visiting her website’s contact page.
