Community cats are not socialized or used to being confined and are unlikely to get adopted and may remain as long term shelter guests since many of them are not domesticated. LA Animal Services joins animal welfare organizations and municipal shelters across the country in cities like Cincinnati, Dallas, San Diego, and many more who believe in working together with our community to help free-roaming or community cats have longer, happier lives by helping to provide access to spay and neuter, medical care, cat food assistance, and more!įree roaming cats, also known as community cats, are the stray cats who prefer to live outdoors rather than inside homes. The program includes education and outreach efforts, and trap-neuter-return (TNR), which humanely traps free roaming cats, spays or neuters and vaccinates them, and returns the sterilized, now healthier, cat back to their natural outdoor home. These sterilized cats will no longer be able to produce litters, causing the number of unowned community stray cats on our streets and backyards to decrease over time.

The Citywide Cat Program provides individuals and community groups with resources to spay and neuter free roaming cats in the the City of Los Angeles. On December 9, 2020, the Los Angeles City Council approved the Citywide Cat Program (CCP) to reduce the population of free-roaming cats in the City, and in February 2022, the City of Los Angeles Board of Animal Services Commissioners adopted the rules and regulations applicable to the trapping of cats pursuant to a trapping permit issued by the Department of Animal Services.īy engaging individuals and community organizations to humanely trap free-roaming cats, spay and neuter them, and then return the sterilized cats back to their outdoor homes - where they were found - will reduce the number of unowned, stray cats in our streets and shelters. It’s one that leading animal welfare organizations, veterinarians, and researchers have developed progressive solutions to address.

Caring for free-roaming cats, while working to stabilize and reduce their numbers, is one of the most complex issues facing animal shelters today. There is an estimated number of 960,000 free-roaming or unowned “community cats” in the City of Los Angeles.

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