Charleston County Council will hold a public hearing to discuss a plan that would allow people to trap, neuter and return free-roaming cats rather than euthanize them.

“Manage them to extinction,“ is how Diane Straney, president of the Feline Freedom Coalition describes TNR with feral cat colonies. She is advocating changes to ordinances in Charleston County, City of Charleston, North Charleston and Mount Pleasant so that people can legally feed outside cats.

Straney and other supporters of TNR say by keeping sterile cats in their place until they die naturally it keeps other cats from filling in their space. There is only so much food or prey to go around. The Charleston Animal Society says they euthanize about 2,400 feral cats a year and eliminating that program could save up to $50,000.

Straney says there are many volunteers who are willing to meticulously manage colonies of feral cats until they die out.

The South Carolina Audubon Society is among those who oppose replacing euthanasia with TNR.  
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