About Feral Cats

Though we often use the short-hand “feral” cats, the cats you see roaming the streets and farms of Greater Cincinnati are often not feral at all. A better term for these cats is community cats, or free-roaming cats – these terms encompass not only feral (wild) cats who have never been socialized, but also “stray” cats (cats who have either been lost or abandoned, or cats who are pets but live their lives outdoors). Stray cats are approachable and sometimes even downright friendly!

Regardless of their status, all community cats can contribute to unwanted litters of kittens if they’re not fixed. OAR advocates a decades-old and effective approach to keeping the cat population in check: trap/neuter/return (TNR). With TNR, community cats are trapped in humane live traps, spayed/neutered by a licensed veterinarian, and returned to the neighborhoods or barns where they came from to enjoy their natural (but un-reproductive!) life outdoors.