HOPE is committed to helping reduce the feral cat population in Houston through humane, non-lethal methods.
If you want to help feral cats in your neighborhood, HOPE can help you with:
– equipment for loan (traps, recovery carriers, cat condos)
– free or reduced-cost sterilization for a small colony
– resources / educational material / hand holding
– cat adoption program for socialized, formerly-feral kittens
HOPE’s TNR program includes feral cats as well as stray or ‘community cats’. If the cat is homeless and un-sterilized, and the trapper is willing to release the cat back to its original outdoor habitat and continue feeding it, the cat qualifies for our program.
If you would like to read up on feral cats, TNR and other programs, these links are helpful:
- Feral Cat Assistance Program (FCAP)
- Houston’s Bureau of Animal Regulation & Care
- Friends of BARC
- Harris County Community Cat Program (if you live within unincorporated Harris County), HarrisCountyCCP@bestfriends.org
Hotline 713-253-0529 - Alley Cat Allies
- Forgotten Felines
- Feral Cat Coalition
- Neighborhood Cats
- Barn Cats Inc.
These low cost Spay Neuter Clinics in the greater Houston area are feral friendly:
- Central – Spay Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP)
- South – Houston Humane Society
- North – Texas Litter Control
- East – Spay Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP in Pasadena)
- West – Citizens for Animal Protection
- Far West – KAAWS Clinic
- Far West – PANDA
- Southwest – Palm to Paws
- Galveston County – Animal Alliance
Here is a summary of our program and the process involved in using our program:
- Our program is suitable for smaller colonies
- Trappers with larger colonies should always contact:
- FCAP, Feral Cat Assistance Program, http://www.cap4pets.org/programs/feral-cats which is part of the CAP, Citizens for Animal Protection, shelter services
- BARC (if you live within the Houston City limits), http://www.houstontx.gov/barc/tnr_get_involved.html
- Friends of BARC, http://www.friendsofbarc.org/
programs.htm
- All HOPE feral cat ID numbers will expire after 90 days and can not be reissued.
- If a trapper is trapping at more than one small colony and they want help with a large number of cats, we can give them additional ID numbers and authorizations but they will have to pay for all cats in excess of HOPE’s limit (but they would get the HOPE discount at our vet).
- All trappers are asked to make a donation towards our feral cat vet bill. Better yet, if a trapper can afford to pay for their ferals at our vet (using the HOPE discount), that would allow us to maximize our feral cat program and help even more people, especially those people that want to help ferals but truly cannot afford to pay for any vetting.
In order to use our program, you must follow the steps below:
- Contact HOPE using the form below. A HOPE volunteer will respond within a week.
- After the initial exchange of information, HOPE will assign ID numbers (valid for 90 days) and send in the corresponding authorizations to our vet.
- Once the authorizations have been sent in, HOPE will email the trapper all the pertinent information on how to utilize HOPE’s vet and then the trapper can make their own appointments.
- If the trapper needs to borrow equipment prior to trapping, the HOPE volunteer will coordinate this with the trapper.
- Borrowed equipment must be returned to HOPE in clean and working condition within a specified time frame.