Many communities have local laws that consider cats as free roaming creatures, i.e. the old saying "You do not own a cat, the cat owns you." In those communities, you are not responsible for feral cats that you provide food, water or medical care for. As for the TNR programs that have been ran here, since it is not the individual who is paying for the neuter service, they are not considered as having taken ownership. The veterinary hospitals that provide the service will only accept cats that are in traps and act like feral cats. If the cat is in a carrier or appears to be friendly and used to human touch, they are not considered feral and are not eligible for free neutering.
Prior to ten years ago, my back yard/garage seemed to be the neighborhood maternity ward. At one point there were two litters of kittens and an opossum with a litter present at the same time. We would make friends with the kittens at four to six weeks old and bring them inside by 12 weeks. some of them we gave away and some we kept. Those we kept we had neutered. In the summer of 2006, the local SPCA had a TNR program going. You could get 3 vouchers per address. Between our address and our daughter's address we were able to get three feral females and two males in my neighborhood and the female that had a litter in her backyard done. No litters of kittens in the backyard since then.
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