In 1998, when Jenny Burgess arrived in San Antonio from England, she found a different attitude than that in her homeland, where most doors had cat flaps and indoor-only cats were unheard of.

She joined local efforts caring for cats after she found a stray living under the building where she worked.

Her group tried to catch and socialize the cats, but when they ran into wilder cats they realized it was better to stop the multitudes from being born. So they began using the trap, neuter and release method animal advocates in England and Denmark have promoted since the early 1970s.

In 2004, they formed the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition to educate the public about the city's cat overpopulation problem. The group estimates there are a quarter of a million outside cats in San Antonio.

TNR wasn't considered an alternative to the widely used trap-and-kill method until the early 1990s, Burgess said, when Alley Cat Allies, a national advocacy organization for humane methods of feral cat control, began offering classes around the nation.

The San Antonio coalition's free sessions give residents a chance to do their part to reduce free-roaming cat populations across the city, said Burgess, now the executive director.

More Information

San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition

• The coalition is not a rescue group and doesn't take in cats.

• Animals aren't allowed at training sessions.

• Traps available for loan or purchase at classes.

• Help Line: 210-877-9067

Volunteers teach class participants that it's better to trap and sterilize feral cats and then release them back to their area, where they mark boundaries and keep other cats from moving in. Burgess said this method works better than trap-and-kill, which allows other cats to fill the gaps in the colonies.

The group became a presence at City Council meetings, speaking out about the need to adopt TNR as the preferred method to control cat colonies. In 2007, the city endorsed TNR and adopted the system in the city codes.

“To make a big difference, you have to get the whole city on board — residents and agencies alike — thinking and moving in the right direction,” Burgess said. “By people stepping up, it ultimately saves Animal Care Services officers time and allows them to deal with more urgent problems, such as roaming dogs that can harm humans.”

The group relies on donations from residents and grants to subsidize the cost of spaying and neutering, Burgess said. In the future, the group hopes to see something in the city budget to provide for free feral surgeries.

“It would be a wonderful leap forward,” she said. “People would bring in more cats if they didn't have to pay out of pocket.”

TNR is the proven method of dealing with issues surrounding feral cats, and community cats, endorsed by the city, said Lisa Norwood, ACS spokeswoman.

“It is the only foolproof method that we have at hand to deal with this issue,” Norwood said. “Forty years of catch and kill has not worked.”

The coalition's mission is important to the city reaching its no-kill goal, said Sherry Derdak, president of the coalition. It has trained more than 3,200 residents, teaching them that one unsterilized female cat can have 18 kittens in one year.

“It's about saving kittens from being born,” Derdak said. “Of those born out there, half die. They're eaten by animals and in the summer they can die from heat; it's just cruelty and torture for them. Until we address the outside cat situation, we won't achieve no-kill. The city focus has been on dogs, but when you talk about no-kill, it's dogs and cats.”