Our work in Bradford

Trap, neuter, return

TNR is essential in Bradford to stop the never ending cycle of breeding and suffering. We have to focus on neutering as many cats as possible to reduce their numbers and get the cat population of Bradford under control.

A community cat in a humane trap on the way to be neutered

Donate to our TNR work Raise money for free

Charity No. 1213234

In memory

This is Alice

By the time we got to Alice she had already had what we believe was her fifth litter. We found her on the streets, heavily pregnant and due to give birth any day.

We got her safe. Then she went into labour, and with no warning at all she dropped dead. Her body could not cope. All her kittens died with her.

We were devastated. Not only because she was the sweetest girl, but because none of it needed to happen. One operation, when she was four months old, and Alice would still be alive.

We had been talking about a neutering scheme and TNR work for a long time. Alice is why it stopped being a conversation. Every cat we get neutered now is paid for through Alice's Fund, set up in her memory.

The hardest part is that she was not unusual. Many girls come in to us with kittens and already carrying the next lot. The boys arrive torn up from fighting, and often FIV positive, because people still think neutering a tom is optional. The number of cats suffering on the streets of Bradford is the worst it has ever been.

Give to Alice's Fund

What TNR is, and why we do it

In an ideal world we would bring them all into rescue and find them all lovely homes. We do not live in an ideal world. We live in this one, and at times it is grim.

Cats we were asked to help with in a single day. In Bradford alone. That is not a busy week, that is one day, and it is not unusual any more.

Most of those cats are kittens born on the streets, because no rescue caught them in time or every rescue was full. They grow up never having lived indoors. They become community cats, which is the term we use rather than feral. Then they have kittens of their own, who also do not get picked up, because the rescues are still full. And it repeats. That is how you get from one unneutered cat to hundreds, and how the country ends up with a quarter of a million.

What a community cat actually is

The thing about many of these cats in Bradford is that they do not like people. They are not scratching at your door or rubbing round your legs. They come round for food and disappear. They live in groups, and those groups are usually families. They go unseen precisely because they are not begging at anyone's back door, and the only way to catch them is with proper cat traps.

They have their people who feed them, they have the other cats, and they find places to sleep. But they do struggle. The toms are forever fighting. The girls have litter after litter until they drop dead, which is exactly what happened to Alice.

They are struggling, and they still do not want to live with people. Both of those things are true at once, and that is the whole problem TNR exists to solve.

So we trap them, neuter them, and release them back to the colony, where somebody feeds them and keeps watch and can contact us if one of them becomes unwell.

Is TNR a perfect solution? No. But there are more cats than there are homes, and the only answer to that is neutering. It is the only way to save the next generation from meeting the same fate as this one.

What actually happens

TrapHumane traps set where the cats already feed, watched the whole time
VetNeutered, checked over, treated for fleas and worms
ReturnBack to the exact place they came from, once they have recovered. Food, water and shelters are provided
WatchThe cats are watched over by a dedicated feeder in the community, who contacts us if the cats need anything or if a new cat appears

Friendly cats and young kittens come out of the colony and go into foster care instead. That part we will always do where we can.

What your money does

Every amount here buys something that makes a cat's life better.

£5

Covers microchipping for one cat

£10

Covers flea and worm treatment for one cat

£85

Neuters one tom, the one fathering the litters

£108

Spays one female, and every litter she would have had

Neutering is a big number, and most people cannot give that in one go. You do not have to. Everything goes into the same pot, so nine people giving a tenner is a tom cat neutered, and eleven is a female spayed before she has another litter. Whatever you can manage adds up to a cat that gets done.

Donate to our TNR work

Other ways to help

Get your own cat neutered

The quickest way to help is to make sure your own cat is done. If cost is the problem, our blog post Why neutering matters lists the help available in Bradford.

Shop through easyfundraising

Sign up once and a percentage of what you already spend online comes to us at no cost to you at all. Support us on easyfundraising.

Volunteer with us

We need people to help trap cats across Bradford, and people who can drive them to the vets. To find out more, email info@thecathouserescue.com.

Share this page

It costs nothing and it genuinely works. Send it to anyone who has ever fed a stray, or wondered why there are so many cats on their street.

Donate to our TNR work

The Cat House Rescue is a registered charity, no. 1213234, run entirely by volunteers.

For Alice

We cannot bring Alice back, and we cannot save every cat on the streets of Bradford. What we can do is make sure the next cat found on a back street is one we got to in time.

That is what your money buys. Not a building, not a campaign, just one cat at a time, neutered, so no cat has to lose their life like Alice did.

Give to Alice's Fund