It’s early Sunday morning in January. Cars pull into the lot in an industrial section of South Sacramento. What would possess people to get up this early on a cold, dark winter’s day? It’s not a swap meet, big sale, concert tickets, or church. These people have come to the Sacramento SPCA feral cat clinic to get the cats they’ve trapped spayed or neutered and vaccinated as part of a program called TNR: trap neuter return. Why do they do this? It’s a problem that has to be dealt with. “When feral overpopulation causes a problem, people get annoyed with all cats – ferals and pets. They don’t discriminate,” trapper Mary said, summarizing a common sentiment. “Cats get run over, poisoned, ab

There’s a war being waged in Sacramento. The dead are strewn in street gutters like dirty rags, or wind up in dumpsters and garbage cans. Even though the casualties are all on the other side, the humans are losing. The battle is to control our stray and feral cat population, currently estimated to be 350,000 cats in the Sacramento region. The cats are losing, too. There are no winners in this war. Recent news stories about a pet cat shot with a crossbow, teens killing cats for "fun" and a cat mauled by neighborhood dogs underscore the tragic results of a lack of respect for free-roaming cats. An out-of-control feral cat population contributes to the perception of cats as a nuisance and a