GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota — In 2023, Brianne Tushaus trapped nearly 200 cats — all within two miles of her south Minneapolis home.
"Every cat we trap and care for is a life saved and a step towards controlling the feral and stray cat population," Tushaus said.
Trap-neuter-return (TNR) is used to address the community cat population and to help stop new kittens from being born in cat colonies.
"TNR involves many cold nights sitting outside, monitoring traps, buying all the necessary supplies, and covering the costs of any unexpected medical issues. As you can imagine, the financial burden is huge. This is why we depend on free spay and neuter services," Tushaus said.
But a decade-long program has come to an end, leaving small rescues and independent cat trappers scrambling to find funding for spay/neuter surgeries. An emergency fundraiser has been launched to help.
As of July 1, the Animal Humane Society (AHS) is no longer offering free spay/neuter surgeries for TNR cats.
"We started to be able to do TNR for free back in 2014 because of a grant. That grant ended in 2016," explained Janelle Dixon, CEO of AHS. "We were able to still continue forward with free services. But with COVID, a lot of disruptions we've had, and some budget implications that we were having and needed to address, we needed to implement a $75 fee for people using the TNR program."
AHS said the pandemic had an unprecedented impact on the nonprofit, adding, "Since 2020 our expenses have grown faster than our revenue, and we faced an ongoing $3.5 million structural budget deficit going into our 2025 fiscal year, which began July 1."
Some of the changes included eliminating 25 staff positions and adding the $75 fee for the TNR program.
Dixon said their services help nearly 100,000 animals each year; their vet centers primarily serve lower income families.
"We've always had a low-cost service. The TNR cost is $75. If an individual or rescue had to go to a private practice vet, that fee could be anywhere from $250 to $450," said Dixon, adding that they also provide vaccines for the cats.
But for independent cat trappers and small rescues, those costs add up.
"I mentioned that I trap about 150 to 200 cats a year. So at $75 per cat that's in excess of $15,000 that I would need to fund out of my own pocket, which unfortunately I don't think many people have," Tushaus said.
In 2023, The Bitty Kitty Brigade (BKB) trapped more than 500 community cats.
"Most of the time these cats are unsocialized. They're what we call feral. So the best thing we can do for them is to TNR them," said Jacky Wilson, director and community outreach for BKB. "We always say that we can't adopt our way out of cat overpopulation but we can TNR our way out of it."
BKB — a foster-based rescue for orphaned, neonatal kittens — said for their TNR surgeries, about 95% came through AHS.
"I think something we don't talk about enough is the level of stress this puts on the community when they're seeing these young kittens trying to survive on the streets," said Maia Rumpho, founder and director of Pet Project Rescue (PPR).
Rumpho works with low-income communities through the Twin Cities metro area to eliminate barriers to veterinarian care. Rumpho said they have had community members come to them, desperate for help.
"People are saying things to us like it would be cheaper to shoot these cats than to bring them in and pay for the cost of spay and neuter. We've also heard people say they're bringing kittens down to the river to drown them," Rumpho said. "Whenever we hear things like that, we know we're in a crisis."
BKB and PPR said on top of the $75 charge, they are dealing with longer waiting lists to get community cats spayed or neutered.
According to Dixon, they performed 1,100 spay/neuter surgeries on TNR cats from July 1, 2023-July 1, 2024. That ends up being about 20-25 per week. Dixon said they had to make some adjustments for July with staff on vacation but that the number will go back up to normal in August.
BKB and PPR said, early on, there were around 90 spay/neuter appointments per week compared to recently when it was down to 12-15.
"We need both funding and veterinary resources immediately to ensure we don't fall further behind and lose more ground when it comes to community cat populations," Rumpho said.
According to AHS, there are two rescue organizations (BKB and PPR) that use them for TNR spay/neuter services. The rest are independent trappers.
"No decision that we made was easy," Dixon said. "It's just one that we had to do and we hope to continue partnering with the organizations. But we also realize that puts a little bit of a strain on them, as well, in terms of having to help fill the gap that's needed to address TNR in our community."
Pet Project Rescue is holding an emergency fundraiser to get through kitten season, which is in full swing. Money raised will be used for TNR to help cat trappers pay for spay/neuter surgeries.
You can also learn more about community cats and what to do if they are in your neighborhood, here.
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