Urban Wildlands Release: Dr. Longcore Recommends "Removal" of Feral Cats As Opposed to TNR

"Removal" of course, means catch and kill.

The Urban Wildlands Group, Inc. 

Contact:  Babak Naficy, Esq. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Law Office of Babak Naficy December 7, 2009 

 

Travis Longcore, Ph.D. 

Science Director 

The Urban Wildlands Group 

 

Superior Court Orders City of Los Angeles To Stop Controversial 

Feral Cat Program Pending Environmental Review 

 

Conservation groups win suit to force city to conduct required environmental review of 

feral cat program 

 

Six conservation groups won a lawsuit on Friday against the City of Los Angeles and its 

Department of Animal Services to stop the practice of encouraging feral cat colonies until the 

legally required environmental impact reviews are performed. 

 

The Los Angeles Superior Court found that the City of Los Angeles had been “secretly and 

unofficially” promoting “Trap-Neuter-Return,” a controversial program to allow feral cats to run 

free, even while the Department of Animal Services promised to conduct an environmental 

review of the program.  The Court ordered the City to stop implementing TNR.   

 

The plaintiffs, The Urban Wildlands Group, Endangered Habitats League, Los Angeles Audubon 

Society, Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon Society, Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society, and the 

American Bird Conservancy, sued the City in June 2008 to ensure that the controversial program 

to sanction and maintain feral cat colonies was not implemented before a full and public 

environmental analysis. 

 

The groups decided legal action was necessary after their investigation revealed that the City had 

been unofficially implementing a so-called “Trap-Neuter-Return” program and the City 

repeatedly declined their request to stop implementing the program until environmental review 

was performed. 

 

Although the City insisted that no such program existed, the Court concurred with the 

conservation groups and concluded in its Friday ruling that, “implementation of the program is 

pervasive, albeit ‘informal and unspoken.’”  

“Our goal was to see that the City follows the California Environmental Quality Act by 

thoroughly assessing the program’s impacts on the environment and considering alternatives and 

mitigation measures before making specific programmatic decisions,” said Babak Naficy, 

attorney for plaintiffs.   

 

“Feral cats have a range of impacts to wildlife, human health, and water quality in our cities.  

The impacts of institutionalizing the maintenance of feral cat colonies through TNR should be 

discussed in an open, public process before any such program is implemented,” Naficy said.   

 

In June 2005, the Los Angeles Board of Animal Services Commissioners adopted TNR as the 

“preferred method of dealing with feral cat populations as its official policy.”  Thereafter, the 

Board directed the General Manager to prepare an analysis of the program under the California 

Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).   

 

This analysis was never completed but the Department implemented major portions of the 

program anyway.   

 

The Department issued coupons for free or discounted spay/neuter procedures for feral cats 

being returned to neighborhoods and open spaces, including parks and wildlife areas.  It also 

began refusing to accept trapped feral cats or to issue permits to residents to trap feral cats.   

 

The Department assisted outside organizations that performed TNR by donating public space, 

advertising their services, and referring the public to their TNR programs.  The Department even 

encouraged and assisted in establishing new feral cat colonies at City-owned properties. 

 

The Superior Court recognized these actions as illegal implementation of the TNR program that 

could have an impact on the environment and enjoined the City from further pursuing the 

program until it complied with CEQA.   

 

Dr. Travis Longcore, Science Director of The Urban Wildlands Group, said, “Feral cats are 

documented predators of native wildlife.  We support spaying and neutering all cats in Los 

Angeles, which is the law, but do not support release of this non-native predator into our open 

spaces and neighborhoods where they kill birds and other wildlife.” 

 

Even when fed by humans, cats instinctively hunt prey, including birds, lizards and small 

mammals.  Colonies of feral cats, often thriving with the aid of handouts from humans, harm 

native wildlife and contaminate water bodies with fecal bacteria. 

 

Longcore continued, “TNR is promoted as a way to reduce feral cat populations but scientific 

research shows that 70–90% of cats must be sterilized for cat populations to decline.  This is 

virtually impossible to achieve in practice, but population reduction can be achieved with only 

50% removal.” 

 

The City must now stop its TNR program and any further proposal to implement such a program 

must undergo objective scientific review as part of the CEQA process.  This will ensure that the 

public has adequate opportunity to comment and that significant impacts on parks, wildlife, 

water quality, and human health are avoided.   

 

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For further information about Trap-Neuter-Return see: 

Longcore, T., C. Rich, and L. M. Sullivan. 2009. Critical assessment of claims regarding 

management of feral cats by trap–neuter–return. Conservation Biology 23(4):887–894.  

http://www.ca.audubon.org/chapter_assets/Longcoreetal2009ConBio.pdf 

Williams, T. 2009. Felines fatales. Audubon Magazine. Sept-Oct, pp. 30–38. 

http://audubonmagazine.org/incite/incite0909.html