Donate Now!

TNR: Yulia’s experience

Where do you start if you have no experience with a trap?

Start small. Contact the nearest partner veterinary clinic and borrow a trap. Ask the vet to show you how it works. Then, in a calm atmosphere, sort things out yourself. Stock up on 2-3 bags of Felix food − that’s enough to attract animals, one or two. Take a newspaper and an old beach towel.

It is better if you have a local partner. I had four of them, and I am very grateful to them. We planned in advance the places in which many cats live, or bypassed the locals who feed the street animals.

We used to meet in the morning, at 7:00-7:30 am, while there were still few people on the streets and the animals were hungry. We chose a quiet place (preferably away from the footpath). 

The bottom of the trap was covered with newspaper and the food was put in a path in small portions leading away from the entrance of the trap, but with the main portion in the depth of the trap, where the trip plate was located. You should place the main part of the food behind the trip plate so that the animal has to step on it to reach the food. Then we would walk a distance away, so that the animal would not be disturbed, and wait patiently. 

It is important to wait patiently until the animal, having first examined the trap from the outside, decides to go inside and steps on the trip plate, reaching for food. You don’t need to check what is happening every 5 minutes. Usually, a hungry animal needs about 15 minutes to enter and touch the trip plate, then settle down to eat.

As soon as the pedal is activated and the door is lowered, you should immediately cover the cage completely with a towel so that the animal calms down and does not thrash about in the cage. Some of the animals in carriers were handed over to us by local residents and were so tame they could catch them with their hands.

After the operation, I kept the street animals in a trap for another 24 hours at my apartment. I put food and a small plate water in the trap before the animal woke up (it was extremely hot weather, but generally no water is recommended) then released it exactly the same place where it was caught.

Please don’t open the cage while transporting the animal from the clinic or at home, because the animal has enough strength to get out of it just by biting you hard. I had such an experience after which it took me two days to catch the animal again.

That is why I recommend, when taking an animal from the clinic, to check the reliability of the carrier or trap door and, in case of the slightest doubt, firmly fix it with tape, as shown in the photo.

After the operation, my partners and I would observe the animals on the street. We saw that the animals did not experience any difficulties and behaved in the usual way.

NOTE: Yulia Trapped-Neutered-Returned (TNR’d) nearly 60 cats during her vacation in Montenegro. She says she will always remember it with a feeling of great satisfaction when she did something especially important in life!