Photo: Whiskers Rescue Inc. drop trap transfer to box trap

We reached 1,000 signatures – but we still need your help!

Despite the lack of response from any politicians to our letters and requests for meetings, we have been able to find and make contact with the original authors of this bill. There have been no official revisions, but our goal is to have a bill that does not encourage feeding without fixing. We also do not want to prevent animal control from being able to do their jobs when stray cats are abandoned outside or a colony is in danger.

There has been a lot of talk over the past decade about “no-kill” and a goal to become a “no-kill nation.” We can all agree that not killing is better than killing! However, it is discouraging to see how many people in favor of a no-kill nation are unwilling to understand or participate in the huge amount of work and policy changes that are needed to achieve no-kill status.

It starts with getting the cat population under control outside of the shelter.

Many animal lovers think that the solution is to take shelters and animal control out of the equation for no-kill. Throughout the state, people avoid shelters and animal control at all costs, knowing that any shelter is likely to respond that they are full, understaffed, or that the animal may be put down if not adopted or reclaimed. While this is unfortunate, the answer is still not to remove shelters and animal control officers from the cat equation. There are absolutely times when animals need a shelter, such as when an individual passes away without arrangements for their cats. We need animal control to help when a resident finds a friendly cat but cannot keep the cat, when a lost cat is found, even when a stray cat is in a dangerous place and the homeowner or business owner cannot have the cat remain in that location.

All shelters are kill shelters as long as we continue to overload them and prevent cats from breeding outside. "No-kill" shelters remain that way by refusing intake when they run out of room. “Kill” shelters are simply unable to keep up with the demands of residents who have failed to TNR or fix their owned cats, and are left with the unpopular decision: turn people away, or humanely put down animals to make space. People who are turned away inevitably end up releasing unfixed cats outdoors, contributing once again to an exploded outdoor cat population in NJ.

We will never become a no-kill nation if towns are refusing to acknowledge the need for adequately funded animal control and shelters, and we certainly will not get there if no one is held responsible for spaying and neutering of outdoor cats.

Please keep signing and sharing this petition so that we can show the bill’s sponsors that we want to solve the cat problem, not contribute to it by allowing feeding without fixing!