Texas legalizes statewide trap-neuter-return programs for cats

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Among a slew of new legislation signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott this month comes enhanced legal protections for trap-neuter-return programs, or tactics for treating unhoused cats statewide.

Previously, people who participated in TNR programs in areas without legal protections could be held liable for the misdemeanor offense of animal abandonment. The newly signed law, House Bill 3660, offers legal protections for people who capture, sterilize cats and return them to the wild.

Here in Austin, TNR programs have been used as a strategy for addressing overpopulation concerns and preventing excessive cat births. But some organizations have criticized the newly minted legal protections, calling them an ineffective form of population control that can have negative consequences.

"Purposely maintaining stray and feral cats roaming the environment is a significant threat to Texas wildlife," said Grant Sizemore, director of invasive species programs at the American Bird Conservancy. "But it's also a serious risk for public health and causes tremendous nuisances for the neighborhoods where feral cats continue to be abandoned by these programs."

Sizemore said the legalization of TNR practices statewide could encourage some people to dump off unwanted cats in neighborhoods populated with stray and feral populations, which could pose safety threats to those living there. While TNR-treated cats are sterilized, he said they likely aren't regularly taken back into temporary veterinary care for booster shots, which could pose health risks for conditions like rabies.

However, other organizers said the latest legal measure is a net positive and a win for animals. Ashley Steffey, community support program supervisor at the Austin Humane Society, said Abbott's approval will have substantial impacts on rural communities without established TNR programs.

She pointed to the demand levels AHS has seen, where people drive from hours away to sterilize cats to help prohibit rural population growth. For shelters in those communities, the lack of TNR programs meant many unhoused cats were at risk of euthanasia, Steffey said.

"It's not animal cruelty. It's not abandonment," she said. "It's really helpful and humane."

Here in Austin, AHS' community cat program has operated since 2007 as a TNR resource. To date, it has serviced more than 80,000 cats with neuters and getting them vaccinated, as well as offers volunteer training and trap rental resources for those interested.

And Steffey said the efforts have proven successful: Through its collaborations with Lampasas, AHS received a certificate of accomplishment from its mayor for helping reduce the city's cat euthanasia rate by 50%.

"A lot of the folks that are caring for these [stray and feral] cats don't have a lot of resources themselves," Steffey said. "So when their colonies explode, they have less and less money to pay for the care for these cats."

With the newly signed law effective immediately, Sizemore said he worries about the long-term implication of these protections on property owners living near these colonies.

"The intentional release of cats to the landscape puts an unfair burden on property owners to exclude these cats from their property, rather than the common sense approach of simply not releasing stray or feral cats to run at large to begin with."