CHEYENNE, Wyo. — On Monday night, the Cheyenne City Council passed an ordinance updating Title 6 of its municipal code. One part of the ordinance is that city and animal welfare staff implemented new definitions regarding Cheyenne’s Community Cat Program.
The ordinance provides veterinary workers with greater control on how they can provide care to stray and feral cats, according to Britney Tennant, CEO of Cheyenne Animal Shelter. However, the facility staffing is limited and unable to fully address the county’s growing cat population, she adds.
Here is what to know about Cheyenne’s Cat Program.
What is a community cat?
Title 6 defines a community cat as a free-roaming feline “lacking any identifiable evidence of ownership that has access to adequate food, water, and shelter as evidenced by the general body condition of the cat or any cat that may be cared for by one or more residents of the immediate area, either known or unknown.”
A community cat can be both a “stray” or “feral” cat. A stray cat is one that is often sociable because it was acclimated to humans at one point in its life before being abandoned or leaving its home, according to Our Companions Animal Rescue & Sanctuary. Strays also likely live by themselves. Feral cats are unsociable due to their lack of exposure to humans. They don’t enjoy living indoors and are likelier than strays to live among a colony.
Although they aren’t pets, community cats typically live close to human civilization in order to survive. Indeed, some even come into direct contact with and form bonds with residents. Under Cheyenne’s new Title 6 section, caregivers can look after community cats, but these residents aren’t necessarily their owners.
Unlike other animals, community cats are exempt from rules regarding licensing, stray regulations and abandonment. For instance, any resident who follows the municipal code’s trap-neuter-return protocol is not considered to have “abandoned” the cat.
Cheyenne’s Title 6 dictates that community cats must be ear-tipped so residents can distinguish them from outdoor pet cats. A community cat should also have at least one vaccination against rabies.
The Cheyenne Animal Shelter estimates that roughly 30,000 stray kittens are born every year in Laramie County, Tennant said. One of the shelter’s goals is to slow this growth by pursuing trap, neuter and release — also known as TNR — protocol for cats in the community.
Cheyenne’s Community Cat Program
The Cheyenne Animal Shelter states the on its website the program aims to achieve the following for Laramie County:
- Provide low-cost or free spay/neuter procedures and vaccine services for community cats
- Influence and revise public policy in support of community cat population dynamics
- Educate the public through various initiatives
- Disseminate resources for individuals interested in becoming community cat caretakers or who are interested in the trap-neuter-release process
Animal welfare professionals perform TNR protocol on community cats because otherwise they would have to ignore the animals’ presence altogether or resort to trapping and killing them, Tennant said. Neutering and releasing the cats ensures that veterinary and animal control officers can humanely treat the animals and their growing populations.
“The city of Cheyenne recognizes the need for innovation in addressing the issues presented by community cats,” the section on community cats in Title 6 states. “To that end, it recognizes that trap-neuter-return is the only effective and humane method to manage and reduce the population of community cats.”
Under the city’s municipal code, community cat caregivers can reclaim impounded cats without proof of ownership for TNR purposes.
Cheyenne Animal Shelter resources
To begin seeing a population decline, Cheyenne Animal Shelter would have to operate around 5,000–7,000 surgeries a year on community cats, Tennant said. The facility currently doesn’t have a dedicated TNR team, so it relies on community members to bring in cats for surgery. Additionally, the shelter only has the bandwidth to accommodate around 25 surgeries weekly, which are booked months in advance, Tennant said.
The shelter currently has limited resources to tackle the county’s growing cat population. This position isn’t unique to Cheyenne, though. The U.S. has been facing a veterinary staff shortage over the past several years for a variety of reasons. In an August 2023 article, veterinary website ezyVet states the COVID-19 pandemic, the rising number of pet adoptions, the financial cost of veterinary education and staff burnout are reasons why many animal care facilities are facing restricted resources.
How to treat community cats
Website Alleycat.org outlines best practices for anyone interested in caring for a colony of community cats. Here are some general tips:
- Follow your municipality’s trap-neuter-release protocol.
- Provide food and water at a feeding station. Keep their feeding location discreet.
- Provide shelter.
- Monitor a colony’s total number of cats.
- Do what you can to help the cats coexist with humans.
- Plan ahead for substitute colony care if you no longer can.
For a more comprehensive breakdown on each of these points, visit the Alleycat.org fact sheet here.
For those who aren’t community cat caregivers, however, it’s best to keep your distance from stray or feral cats, Tennant said.
“Our advice to people is that if a cat appears to be healthy — it’s a healthy body weight, it’s not obviously ill or injured — we would prefer that people just leave them,” Tennant said. “We know that approximately 30–40% of free-roaming cats are owned by people, and they’re probably within a couple of 100 yards of their home.”
Anyone who has a cat that frequently wanders outside should have it microchipped or carry some other form of identification like a collar, Tennant said. This is so other Laramie County residents don’t accidentally mistake the pet for a community cat and take it to the shelter.
Fur Ball fundraiser
To help address the shelter’s limited funding and better address the needs of community cats and caregivers, Tennant states that the facility is hosting a fundraiser on March 4.
The shelter’s event is called Fur Ball 2024: “P.E.T. – The Pet Extra-Terrestrial” and will be held at Little America Hotel & Resort. Attendees can take part in live and silent auctions and enjoy entertainment such as “stories about the successes, heartbreaks, and preservation of the human–animal bond” at the fundraiser. Adoptable pets will also be present.
All money raised from the fundraiser will go toward funding clinical services at Cheyenne Animal Shelter. Tickets and sponsor opportunities are available here.
