Have you been seeing cats outside for a while, who don’t appear to be owned? These are known as “Community Cats,” cats who live outside and don’t have owners. Some are friendly, and have been abandoned by owners, and others have lived for generations outside.
The most effective way to decrease this number is TNR: TNR helps prevent thousands of cats from being added to the population! Unfortunately, this critical service is not funded as part of our contract, but thanks to a generous gift by Cynthia Silber, we are launching a special spring initiative to spay/neuter 800 unowned Philadelphia cats: The Fix Philly Felines initiative!
*This initiative is in addition to our collaboration with the Penn Vet Mobile Clinic, which enables us to provide TNR on site multiple days a month year-round!
Ready to trap some cats and save some lives?
- Take a look at the clinic drop off schedule at ACCT Philly here and determine when you want to try to trap the cats (you should place the trap out no earlier than the night before unless you are planning on housing them inside for a short time prior to the clinic).
- If you don’t have a cat trap (most people don’t!), you can rent one for FREE at the Catadelphia trap library in Tacony
- Watch this video here to see how to set up the trap
- Once you have the cat, bring them to ACCT Philly at the time and date of your appointment. You’ll fill out some paperwork, and they’ll get spayed/neutered, vaccinated, given flea/tick preventative and ear tipped (this lets people know the cat has been altered)
- Pick up the cat and trap the next day at ACCT Philly, take them to where you trapped them, and release them!
- Clean your trap and return it to the trap library so that it can be used to help others!
Questions? Check out our FAQ about this initiative here
Walk Up TNR through ACCT Philly and Penn Vet Mobile Clinic:
In July of 2021, ACCT Philly is expanded its capacity by partnering with Penn Vet Mobile Clinic to offer TNR to the public one to two days per week. In order to make this service more accessible, we accept up to 20 cats on surgery days, with a limit of two cats per person, and do not do appointments for this service. Appointments are only available for the Fix Philly Felines initiative as described above. Both of these services are ONLY for community/stray/feral cats that will be returning back to their outdoor homes.
Please note:
- Cats must be dropped off in a humane cat trap between 8am-9am on the day of surgery. One cat per trap and two cats per person.
- Cats must be trapped in Philadelphia.
- Pull into the back parking lot. When you are facing the building, you will see a large dog run on the left. To the right of that dog run is a pathway. Follow the path and there will be a door on your right. This is where you'll be dropping off your cats.
- Pick up is the next day from 9am - 12pm via the same entrance. You must pick up your TNR cats by 12pm the day after surgery. Repeated failure to pick up cats may result in individuals no longer being permitted to utilize TNR resources at ACCT. We will not be offering same day pick up as, in our experience, it is ideal to have the cats stay overnight to ensure they’ve safely woken up from the anesthesia and are ready to be released back to their colonies
- This service is ONLY for community/stray/feral cats that will be returning back to their outdoor homes. If you have a cat that you are planning to adopt out, please check here for low cost veterinary options in Philadelphia.
- Cats in the ACCT Philly Community Cat Program receive spay or neuter surgery, left ear tip*, vaccines (FVRCP & Rabies), flea treatment, wellness exam, and food during their stay.
*A left ear tip indicates a cat has been spayed/neutered and vaccinated
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Upcoming TNR Days for Penn Mobile Clinic at ACCT Philly
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Tuesday, April 11th
- Tuesday, April 18th
- Tuesday, April 25th
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Need to borrow a trap?
Did you know that you can rent a trap? These are used to safely trap stray and feral cats that are in need of spay or neuter services. Catadelphia, a local organization focused on helping cats in Philadelphia, operates a trap library! Visit Catadelphia's trap library here.
Surrender (SNR) Services at ACCT Philly
ACCT Philly will no longer be accepting TNR cats as surrenders. If you are bringing in a cat for the specific purpose of TNR’ing, you must follow the steps listed above on our TNR days. If you bring in a community cat in a trap to surrender, you will be turned away and asked to make an appointment. The only time you may surrender a cat for the specific purpose of TNR’ing is if you believe the cat to be pregnant, or suffering from pyometra, or extremely injured or sick (to learn more about pyometra, click here). You will not be able to pick up a cat that you have surrendered.
SNR (Shelter- Neuter- Return) is a program specifically created to help stray cats that are surrendered to ACCT Philly by the general public. This program is for good samaritans who want to help, but don’t yet know about TNR. A member of the general public may find a stray cat and bring it straight to us. Instead of keeping these stray cats indefinitely in the shelter, we will fix and vaccinate and then return them back to where they were found.
Please contact us if you need trapping assistance, want to volunteer or have other questions.
