• Feral cats have an average of 1.4 litters per year, with an average 3.5 live births in each litter. That equals 4.9 kittens per year, per female feral cat. Indeed, a pair of breeding cats and their offspring can produce 420,000 kittens over a seven-year period.



• Of the approximately 146 million cats in the United States, about half are feral/unowned.



• In California, more than $50 million per year (coming largely from taxes) is spent by animal control agencies and shelters for cat-related expenses.



• Every day, 10,000 humans are born in the United States, while 70,000 kittens and puppies are born. As long as these birth rates exist, there will never be enough homes for all of the animals, resulting in the euthanization of many of them.



• Each year, almost 9 million dogs and cats are euthanized in shelters in the U.S. because there are not enough homes. In California alone, 750,000 to one million animals are euthanized for this reason. Indeed, more than 60% of the animals impounded in California shelters die there.



• Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is more cost-effective than trapping and killing feral cats. Altering a cat costs about $50, while euthanizing a cat costs more than $100.



• An established TNR program can effectively reduce the feral cat population in both the short and long term.

No neuter/spay law can regulate the breeding of feral cats. No city or county agency is structured to humanely reduce the feral cat population. The Solano Feral Cat/TNR Task Force seeks to replicate the extremely successful programs in the city of Berkeley and San Diego County. As those programs have demonstrated, the only effective way to address the overpopulation problem is through an aggressive TNR program.

TNR programs benefit all cats, including domestic cats. Animal control resources that now must be directed toward feral cats could be used to provide shelter and services for adoptable domestic cats. As detailed below, the city of Berkeley and San Diego County have reduced the euthanasia rates for all cats brought to their shelters by about 50% since free spay/neuter clinics for ferals have started in those areas.