Boone John D
Research Director, Great Basin Bird Observatory, Reno, NV 89502, USA
J Feline Med Surg. 2015 Sep;17(9):800-7. doi: 10.1177/1098612X15594995.
Trap-neuter-return (TNR) for cat management is transitioning from an enterprise driven mainly by an urge to 'help' into an enterprise that draws useful guidance and precedent from the fields of population biology and wildlife management. This transition is in its infancy, however. At the present time many TNR programs do not produce substantial and persistent reductions in cat populations, and those that do often fail to effectively document this achievement or to publicize their success.
As a result, TNR has become increasingly controversial, with TNR advocates and wildlife conservationists often staking out fundamentally incompatible positions. This may ultimately prove to be an unproductive debate, since public opinion in developed countries is unlikely to support a total abandonment of TNR in favor of widespread cat management using lethal methods, and since wildlife advocates are unlikely to support TNR as it is typically practiced.
In contrast, improving the effectiveness of TNR as a population management tool can benefit both cats and wildlife, potentially on a broad scale. Making these advancements requires the diligent promotion, dissemination and adoption of tools like population modeling, population monitoring and adaptive management. By virtue of their training and exposure to the scientific method, veterinarians are uniquely well positioned to translate the more technical aspects of these approaches to TNR practitioners, and to facilitate their wider use.
The purpose of this review is to describe for a veterinary audience how to facilitate more effective sterilization-based management of outdoor cats, using a combination of theoretical knowledge derived from population modeling and empirical knowledge derived from population monitoring. Using both of these information sources synergistically can offer a viable pathway to better management outcomes.
用于猫管理的诱捕-绝育-放归（TNR）正在从一个主要由“帮助”冲动驱动的事业，转变为一个从种群生物学和野生动物管理领域汲取有用指导和先例的事业。然而，这种转变尚处于初期阶段。目前，许多TNR项目并未使猫的数量大幅且持续减少，而那些确实减少了数量的项目，往往未能有效记录这一成果或宣传其成功之处。
因此，TNR变得越来越有争议，TNR倡导者和野生动物保护主义者常常持根本不相容的立场。这最终可能证明是一场徒劳的辩论，因为发达国家的公众舆论不太可能支持完全放弃TNR而倾向于使用致死方法进行广泛的猫管理，而且野生动物倡导者也不太可能支持目前通常实施的TNR。
相比之下，提高TNR作为一种种群管理工具的有效性，可能在广泛范围内使猫和野生动物都受益。实现这些进展需要勤奋地推广、传播和采用种群建模、种群监测和适应性管理等工具。凭借其培训和对科学方法的接触，兽医具有独特的优势，能够将这些方法的更多技术方面转化给TNR从业者，并促进其更广泛的应用。
本综述的目的是向兽医群体描述如何利用从种群建模中获得的理论知识和从种群监测中获得的经验知识，促进对户外猫进行更有效的基于绝育的管理。协同使用这两种信息来源可以为实现更好的管理结果提供一条可行的途径。
