history

A brief history of cat management on campus

While the new Northrup Hall was being built, the Trinity University Public Relations Office was relocated to the little gray house at 538 Kings Court on lower campus. We soon discovered a pregnant cat who also addressed there.
Soon there were a pair of kittens. And then two male cats arrived. Then another batch of kittens. Then the kittens were having kittens of their own.
All in less than six months¹ time. It became apparent that we would soon be overrun with cats. Because we had come to know these cats, and considered them our ³office mascots,² almost like our own pets, we realized that the ³usual² solution to reducing the population of feral cats‹-trap-and-kill‹-was not going to be acceptable. We did begin trapping, but with the goal of neutering the cats, and then returning them to their home on campus. Very soon, the little cat colony at 538 Kings Court was under control and stabilized.

Meanwhile, the University was becoming aware that its trap-and-kill program for ³managing² the campus cat population was not working. As cats were removed, new ones would replace them. Students, knowing that the trapped cats were doomed to death, would sabotage the trapping process by stealing the traps or releasing the cats. Physical Plant employees, saddened at having to trap the cats, were reluctant to carry out their duty. For all these reasons, the cat population on campus was slowly beginning to increase. Clearly, a new solution was needed.

Cat Alliance | Trinity and the TNR program

In the fall of 2004, the University approved the use of the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) method for managing the campus cat population. Cat Alliance | Trinity (CAT) is the campus organization responsible for managing this program. The Cat Alliance cares for all free-roaming cats on campus‹-stray and feral‹-by feeding, neutering, vaccinating, and providing for veterinary care as needed. We are an all-volunteer group which includes faculty, staff, and‹-beginning just this past fall of 2005‹-students.

The Trinity campus is the first campus in the city to apply the TNR method, although several other San Antonio universities are now in the process of establishing TNR programs. CAT has recently been contacted for start-up advice by both St. Mary¹s University and UTSA. Many other universities throughout the United States employ TNR, including Texas A&M and UT-Austin (whom we consulted when setting up our program). While the TNR method has been around for awhile‹-it has been advocated by Alley Cat Allies (a national organization devoted to educating the public about feral cats in urban settings) for more than a decade‹-the program is still very new to San Antonio. TNR is being researched by San Antonio¹s City Council as part of the solution to the city¹s animal overpopulation problem.

Cat Alliance | Trinity applauds the University¹s progressive viewpoint concerning TNR, and appreciates the opportunity to manage the campus cats via this innovative and humane method.