Nearly 90,000 cats live in Arlington, although not all of them are what you would consider a pet. Many are stray or feral cats, the wild, free-roaming offspring of domestic felines that are often the result of pet owners who fail to spay or neuter their animals.

The result has been an overpopulation in the City, resulting in higher nuisance complaints, more shelter admissions and an increase in cat euthanasia.

To better tackle this problem, the City of Arlington will soon be introducing the Trap-Neuter-Return Program, a non-lethal solution where community cats are humanely trapped, vaccinated, sterilized and released back to their outdoor homes where caretakers feed and monitor them.

This method would manage the free ranging control of cats almost immediately, and in time reduce the population. Tamed kittens would be adopted to loving homes while older tamed cats would also be adopted, if that is a possibility.

In the current "trap and kill"cycle of sheltering and euthanizing animals, there has been little impact on exponential population growth, and it's more costly. It costs $170-225 per cat for the "trap and kill"option versus $45-90 per cat using the Trap-Neuter-Return option. The City can experience these savings because volunteers provide in-kind time and funding to trap and provide veterinary services.

By spaying and neutering just one male and one female, more than 2,000 unwanted births can be prevented in just four years and more than two million over an eight-year span.

"Sponsoring organizations and their caregivers have affirmed that all cats that are part of Trap-Neuter-Return program will be sterilized, vaccinated against the threat of rabies, and ear-tipped for easy identification,"said Kathryn Beeler, founder of the Arlington Feral Cat Association. "If these requirements are met, properly identified TNR cats have an affirmative defense to the requirements of licensing, stray, at-large and other city ordinance provisions if there is no nuisance created by the TNR cats."

Beeler said stray, feral and home cats are often difficult to distinguish by looking at them because all are often well groomed and appear healthy. She said feral cats have had little or no contact with humans or such contact started later in life. By then, they are not necessarily fit for living indoors. They do not vocalize much, rarely if ever approach humans, are typically nocturnal and won't eat until humans are out of sight.

"At that point only kittens under eight weeks of age could make that transition to a home,"Beeler said. "Females spend most of their time pregnant and starving."

Strays, she said, may approach humans for food, may vocalize somewhat and could appear pretty much at any time.

Having the cats neutered would eliminate their free-roaming reproduction habits, and that goes for house cats as well, since many are left to their own devices when venturing outside.

Trap-Neuter-Return would eventually reduce the size of the entire cat colony because the number of feral cats would decrease by natural attrition (and through public education encouraging the sterilization of cats). Fewer roaming cats would also mean fewer deaths by vehicles on the road.

Beeler said that cities such as Jacksonville, Florida and Salt Lake City, Utah have recorded a decrease in feline nuisance complaints and shelter admissions with similar programs.

"Besides, sterilized cats are happy and healthier, which means fewer risks to people in general,"said Beeler.