On June 5, The Alpena News published an article in the Local News section titled “Kitten season in Alpena County,” written by Courtney Boyd. Within this article it states:

“Northeast Michigan Trap Neuter Return (TNR), a nonprofit program in the region that specializes in trapping feral and hostile cats, neutering them, and releasing them back into the wild …”

On June 7, Alpena News published a similar article within the Editorial and Columns section titled, “It’s kitten season; spay and neuter your pets,” which had a similar message about Northeast Michigan TNR.

As a board member of Northeast Michigan TNR, I would like to note that this is inaccurate and misleading information. Our program assists with trapping outdoor, free-roaming community cats, whether they are feral, semi-feral, barn cats, friendly strays, etc. Not all cats that go through TNR are feral and hostile and we would love to end the stigma surrounding that belief. Unfortunately, we have a huge issue with people dumping cats and kittens in Alpena and surrounding areas. There is simply not enough space in shelters and rescues to rehome every friendly cat in TNR so, at the very least, with TNR we are able to get them fixed and vaccinated to live a much healthier life.

Northeast Michigan TNR also does not release cats back into the wild. The “R” in TNR stands for “Return.” As with any TNR program, once the cats have been spayed/neutered, rabies vaccinated, ear tipped and have adequate recovery time, they are returned to the location they were trapped.The locations we see most often are trailer parks, apartment complexes, and rural homesteads.

If you would like to know more about Northeast Michigan TNR, visit our Facebook page or email us at nemtnr@gmail.com.

REBECCA WITT,

Vice president, Northeast Michigan TNR