WEEK OF OCTOBER 17, 2024
VOLUME 61 | ISSUE 11
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Northglenn cat fancier promotes trap and release Chris Cline advocates for gentler methods to control strays cats
BY MONTE WHALEY MWHALEY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Chris Cline said that for most of his life, he was a dog person. Then the 50-year-old Northglenn man lost his heart to an alley cat. “I took in a stray, and she became a member of my family. I will never forget her,” Cline said. When she died, a distraught but determined Cline vowed to encourage local cities to do better in their handling of strays, also known as community, feral or alley cats. “Cats are like kitten factories, with some females giving birth to up to seven litters, three times a year,” Cline said. “And really all we do is gather up the strays, take them to shelter and then euthanize them after five days.” That old-school method is expensive since the cats must be fed and then eu-
thanized at the expense of shelters, Cline said. “No one seemed willing to control the population of common cats. It just seems like an endless cycle,” Cline said. Cline began examining the growing practice of TNR – the Trap Neutering Release option for feral/community cats and quickly became a convert. Started in England, TNRing of cats is quickly gaining steam in the United States, according to the advocacy group Alley Cat Allies. The TNR process calls for community cats to be humanely trapped, brought to a veterinary clinic to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and eartipped (the universal sign that a cat has been spayed or neutered through a TNR program), according to Alley Cat Allies. The cats are then returned to the outdoor homes to which they are bonded so they can live out their lives where they thrive, the group states.
CANDIDATE PROFILES
Chris Cline with his cat Braveheart. He advocates for the TNR method of dealing with stray or community cats.
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PHOTO BY MONTE WHALEY
Hear from hopefuls in their own words P6
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