Return to Field
Helping Ottawa County Cats Live Safer, Healthier Lives
Did you know that one unspayed female cat and her offspring can produce over 400,000 cats in their lifetime?! To help combat this, Harbor Humane’s Return to Field (RTF) initiative is a humane solution to managing community cat populations in Ottawa County. By sterilizing, vaccinating, and returning healthy cats to where they were found, we’re saving lives and promoting coexistence.
Understanding RTF
Return to Field is a shelter-based version of Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). When healthy stray or feral cats come into our care, they are spayed/neutered, vaccinated, ear-tipped for identification, and then returned to the location they were found. By re-releasing healthy, vaccinated, fixed cats, we are working to prevent unnecessary euthanasia and reduce the community cat overpopulation issue over time, while also keeping the existing population stable, healthy and free of disease.
Reducing Shelter Intake. Saving Lives.
Before RTF, unsocialized cats brought to shelters had few options. With this evidence-based program, we’re now reducing overcrowding, protecting public health, and giving community cats a chance to thrive in their outdoor homes.
How the
Program Works
Our Step-by-Step Process
FAQs About
Community
Cats
Why return cats instead of rehoming them?
Many outdoor cats are not socialized to humans and would not thrive indoors. Returning them is safer and more humane.
Won’t they just keep multiplying?
No. All cats in RTF are sterilized before they return, which stops the reproductive cycle.
Can I bring in a friendly stray?
If a cat is friendly and adoptable, we’ll assess them for our adoption program. RTF is for healthy, unadoptable outdoor cats.
What Can I Do To Help?
The more cats in an area who are fixed, the better the sterilization program works! If you are feeding outdoor cats who are unaltered, or if you are aware of them, please let us know. We can advise you how to safely capture them and bring them to our spay/neuter clinic.
If you have questions regarding this program, please reach out to [email protected]! To learn more about Return To Field, check out our blog!
