What You Can Learn From The TNR Initiative In Union City, NJ

Just about a year ago, Mayor Brian Stack of Union City, New Jersey announced that he wanted to address the community and stray cat needs of his city – this was in response to numerous call-outs from the town’s feline advocates. He proposed a budget of $100,000 per year to start for a TNR/TNA initiative to address the growing street cat population.

Funding & Volunteers

His one stipulation was that the program would be city-financed, but it had to be volunteer-administered as the trappers, feeders, fosters and advocates were “the experts” and therefore the best ones to run it.

To a community of volunteers who had been doing the best job they could over the years doing their own trap – neuter – return or adopt and the feeders who regularly/daily feed at various spots around town…this was music to their ears!

For the most part, they all have dug into their own pockets for the vet bills, food, etc to take care of their individual colonies forever…and now the City was going to pitch in and provide the necessary funds to give the much-needed help to the community cats of Union City! Meowzza!!

Mom always says that it is proven that a steady and consistent TNR/TNA program will, over time, reduce the feline population.

Union City, NJ TNR Partner

The city has partnered with People For Animals in Hillside, N.J. who are the leading low-cost spay, neuter and vet providers in our area. We are grateful to them for their steady support with this initiative!

Mom has been one of the 3 core volunteers who have been working with the Mayor’s office to help develop this program from a verbal commitment made at a Town Hall meeting in April 2017 to our soft launch on March 1, 2018. There are many volunteers who have been waiting in the wings and now will start launching into various citywide teams as it takes community-wide support to make it all work!

Keeping The Community Informed

There will be PR and Social media to keep the community informed, educational programs geared to the schools along with the boy scouts and girl scouts about our community cats and how we need to care for them, fundraising and food-drives to help the feeders and corporate out-reach for donations and sponsors. Having a strong list of fosters takes time to build, but is so necessary and, as mom says – there are always friendlies and adopt-ables mixed in with the ferals, so we will have adoption events too.

Everyone is super excited about this new program and strongly believes that it will make a positive change in the quality of life for our community cats over time as well as the lives of our residents. We share the planet and we have to take care of our most vulnerable – a community is known by how it takes care of its animals.

Thank you, Mayor Brian Stack of Union City, for your commitment to our town’s community cats! Paws up!